As it currently stands, both Kleiner and Sequoia have already distributed the vast majority of their stakes to their LPs. Thanks to the wonder of the SEC's Form 4, it's possible to go back and calculate exactly how much money the firms have made for their LPs to date. It's also possible to see how much the individual VCs have received (John Doerr and Mike Moritz) and even to make a realtively precise guess at the specific carried interests that each VC has in their respective fund.

Boggling figures. 12.5$M into 4.8$B, 344X return. Nice article, too.

Burnham's Beat: Just How Much Did VCs Pocket On Google?

Decius wrote:

It makes netizens' lives easier in consolidating the number of identities they need to maintain.

I'm not convinced I agree with that conclusion, as things presently stand.

It is not about account generation. If that's all you care about, then of course we're at a wall. Except the advertising properties of running a OpenID authenticator.

If you talk to Bucy, what you'll hear is a lot of angst about having all of his activities and contents being on remote locations. That memestreams would be a whole lot better if the streams were, or could be, individually controlled. That the reputation system is the feature, not your fantastic web design. Having an ID with the authenticator of his choice is a step in a decentralized proceeding.

You lose lock-in. If that's the problem, it is worth noting. But one of the things that is more appealing about the memestreams community than the rough equivallents (for me) of blogline's clipping service, Yahoo's MyWeb 2.0, del.icio.us, etc etc is the hacker aesthetic of the system. The 'despite being such a small community that makes the recommendation system mostly moot' aspect is overshadowed by 'but it is the right way to do it' attitude.

Now, I could decide to allow anonymous posts if they offer this kind of authentication. The value of that would be that initially spammers will be unlikely to use this system. However, over time, spam will flow in this way...

It is not strictly anonymous, and not strictly non-anonymous. It gives you a framework for establishing posting rights without obligatory account creation. Limit your OpenID acceptance of sites that provide some minimal standard of user authentication. Whatever.

Soooo many sites require registration before using them; I don't even have a good ballpark on the number of web sites I have accounts on. And I'm fucking sick of it. I understand that one wants to establish a user-tracking identity when running a site. But I don't want to have to create a new log-in and password for every silly web forum and newspaper; either I end up using a single password (risk), or a password algorithm (hassle). The risk is that I start to actually care about one of the accounts, and the password is vulnerable by the inexperience of any of the servers I use. We could argue that point, but let's not. Yeah, not having to have a password on memestreams would be nice.

What I'm saying is, gee, wouldn't it be nice to log into sites and blogs by authenticating against MemeStreams (adding MemeStreams visibility). When I post to a big blog, the stuff I post on MemeStreams is a better representation of the content I would like to be categorized for than my personal livejournal. If I am posting in public, an interested reader does not want to drop to a personal discussion of my apartment situation. I would be as happy to be "dm... [ Read More (0.3k in body) ]

RE: news: OpenID support

This article discusses the issues that typically arise in the process of examining motion picture accountings rendered to net profit participants. The authors explore both the general legal principles involved and the particular accounting practices which are likely to give rise to disputes between profit participants, on one hand, and motion picture studio/distributors on the other.

HOLLYWOOD LAW CYBERCENTER - Studio Accounting Practices

Almost two years ago, one of our engineers was interested in buying a plasma TV and tried using web search to find a good site for reviews --- a quick search revealed that there were hundreds of sites offering to educate him on plasma TVs, yet short of visiting all the sites, it was difficult to figure out which site exactly was the 'best' site. So he did what millions of people do every day – asked a friend, who recommended two excellent sites for plasma TV reviews. He never ended up buying a TV (things just got too busy with search), but this was the moment of inspiration that lead us to build the product we are introducing today – a social search engine that enables people to search the expertise of their friends and community.

And if Industrial Memetics were better positioned, it would get swept up in the next generation of search technology (social search). It provides the thing (reputation matching) that Generation 1 of Social Search won't have. I don't trust my immediate friend circle for anything other than specific bits as much as a robust reputation network.

Yahoo! Search blog: Search, with a little help from your friends

This DVD Jon character enjoys pointing out that not only is DRM is inherently flawed, but most attempts to cover that up only make the removal process that much more embarrassing.

Google has released Google Video Viewer, a browser plugin based on VLC. Here’s one of the features they’ve added:
...
This “feature” prevents you from playing videos that are not hosted on Google’s servers. Download and run this patch I wrote to remove this restriction.

Google Video Viewer - So sue me

Step 1: Choose the most remote location on earth.
Step 2: Pray your construction barge doesn’t sink.
Step 3: Teach the locals how to use a toaster.
Step 4: Beware of the black magic.
Step 5: Rethink step one.

So, You Want to Open a Dive Resort? - ScubaDiving.com

The coast of Honduras is only 40 miles away, but the Bay Islands seem much further removed from the home country. The old influence of England, pirates and former slaves is still strong in the Bay Islands, but there's a difference, too: To the people of Roatan, Utila and Guanaja their islands don't end at the ocean. The marine world is their treasure — one they proudly share.

Preserving this link because I'll be planning a trip to Honduras later this year or early next.

Sport Diver Magazine - Blue Treasures

Biologists in the Great Lakes region - which spent an estimated $120 million in cleanup costs in one five-year period following the zebra mussel invasion in 1988 - have tried everything from chemicals like chlorine, copper sulfate or molluscicides, freezing or drying, to electrocution and radio waves to kill them, but none of those methods worked.

So we know who will maintain the oceans when the Cockroaches inherit the earth.

Washington Examiner: Top News

Here's something you probably didn't know: Ireland today is the richest country in the European Union after Luxembourg.

Fascinating, because this really didn't seem to be the feeling on the ground in Ireland. They still have a very "underdog" and "down and out but still kicking" mentality. I attribute this to being hard to discern where you are on a derivative -- and GDP is a derivative indicator of wealth production and distribution. One looks at the Old Money wealth of Europe, and assumes that it is prosperous without noticing that your boat is rising faster than theirs.

The results have been phenomenal. Today, 9 out of 10 of the world's top pharmaceutical companies have operations here, as do 16 of the top 20 medical device companies and 7 out of the top 10 software designers. Last year, Ireland got more foreign direct investment from America than from China. And overall government tax receipts are way up.

The End of the Rainbow - New York Times

Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme Court which was supported by Justice Souter himself itself might allow it. A private developer is seeking to use this very law to build a hotel on Souter's land.

Justice Souter's vote in the "Kelo vs. City of New London" decision allows city governments to take land from one private owner and give it to another if the government will generate greater tax revenue or other economic benefits when the land is developed by the new owner.

Lost Liberty Hotel