1. Angel Investors Are Going Where VCs Fear to Tread Newsweek covers our investment fund Founder Collective.

    Angel Investors Are Going Where VCs Fear to Tread

    Newsweek covers our investment fund Founder Collective.

  2. The new Boxee website has garnered attention, and I’d be remiss not to mention that Jace Cooke is largely responsible for coding the front-end. Jace intends to build a cabin at Beaver Brook, about 90 miles Upstate from New York, and he’s looking for interesting projects that will allow him to work from there and still be involved in tech for the next year. Please contact him directly if you could use his help.

    The new Boxee website has garnered attention, and I’d be remiss not to mention that Jace Cooke is largely responsible for coding the front-end.

    Jace intends to build a cabin at Beaver Brook, about 90 miles Upstate from New York, and he’s looking for interesting projects that will allow him to work from there and still be involved in tech for the next year. Please contact him directly if you could use his help.

  3. My direct brain-to-computer interface headset arrived.

    My direct brain-to-computer interface headset arrived.

  4. Listening to Donny Hathaway tonight. →

    Greatness.

  5. noahkalina: It was great fun working with Zach on the video clips that run on the top of these pages (those are my hands).   Thanks, Noah.

    noahkalina:

    It was great fun working with Zach on the video clips that run on the top of these pages (those are my hands).  

    Thanks, Noah.

  6. Here’s a Boxee Box cartoon by Pasquale D’Silva and his team.

    (Source: vimeo.com)

  7. nickcrocker: The Boxee Box is #1 in TV and Video products on Amazon.

    nickcrocker:

    The Boxee Box is #1 in TV and Video products on Amazon.

  8. These Boxee Box teardown pictures are pretty.

    These Boxee Box teardown pictures are pretty.

  9. Dear Mom and Dad, I know you have hard time explaining what I do to our family friends (I should call more often). Here’s my biennial update to make it a bit easier: For the past 15 months I’ve been working on a project called Boxee. My colleagues and I make software in response to a few problems: Cable TV bills are increasingly expensive; People pay for a lot of TV they never watch, making what they do watch disproportionately overpriced. The content we can watch on our TVs doesn’t include most of the things we actually want to watch. I, for example, watch just as much homemade video (stuff made by my friends and people I admire) as I watch Hollywood stuff — and the Hollywood stuff I do watch is usually through Netflix or Hulu. In general, there’s an overwhelming amount of content to choose from and it’s paralyzing to decide what to watch. Enter Boxee. It’s software for your TV and it allows you to watch what you want to watch when you want to watch it — including many big budget shows and movies plus Vimeo, YouTube and hundreds of relatively smaller and independent sources — and when you don’t know what to watch, we make it easy for you to see what your friends and family have recently loved. Basically, it’s the interface that TV has been missing for a decade. Since day one, our software has been available on the Internet for free. People could install it on a spare computer to hook up to their TV. This, however, requires some technical experience, so about a year ago we pursued partnerships with device manufacturers hoping that one day people will be able to buy TVs with Boxee already installed on them. We were thrilled when this big company called D-Link (you guys own a D-Link Wi-Fi router) decided to build the first device powered by our software. This means that instead of having to ‘build’ your own Boxee, you can now buy a device specialized to use our software, and it also comes with the cable and remote you need to use it with your TV. It’s called the Boxee Box and it costs $200 and doesn’t require a monthly fee. For all these months I’ve been working with a team to design the Box and its remote control, and everything in between to get it to the market. Today, I’m proud to announce that the Boxee Box is available to buy in over 30 countries (Tell them it’s even available on Amazon!). We’re having a big party tonight in New York to celebrate. Wish you could be here with us. Anyway, hope this helps, expect your own Box to arrive in the mail soon. Love,Zach CC: The Internet. Some folks are out there are scratching their heads, too.

    Dear Mom and Dad,

    I know you have hard time explaining what I do to our family friends (I should call more often). Here’s my biennial update to make it a bit easier:

    For the past 15 months I’ve been working on a project called Boxee. My colleagues and I make software in response to a few problems:

    • Cable TV bills are increasingly expensive; People pay for a lot of TV they never watch, making what they do watch disproportionately overpriced.
    • The content we can watch on our TVs doesn’t include most of the things we actually want to watch. I, for example, watch just as much homemade video (stuff made by my friends and people I admire) as I watch Hollywood stuff — and the Hollywood stuff I do watch is usually through Netflix or Hulu.
    • In general, there’s an overwhelming amount of content to choose from and it’s paralyzing to decide what to watch.

    Enter Boxee. It’s software for your TV and it allows you to watch what you want to watch when you want to watch it — including many big budget shows and movies plus Vimeo, YouTube and hundreds of relatively smaller and independent sources — and when you don’t know what to watch, we make it easy for you to see what your friends and family have recently loved.

    Basically, it’s the interface that TV has been missing for a decade.

    Since day one, our software has been available on the Internet for free. People could install it on a spare computer to hook up to their TV. This, however, requires some technical experience, so about a year ago we pursued partnerships with device manufacturers hoping that one day people will be able to buy TVs with Boxee already installed on them.

    We were thrilled when this big company called D-Link (you guys own a D-Link Wi-Fi router) decided to build the first device powered by our software. This means that instead of having to ‘build’ your own Boxee, you can now buy a device specialized to use our software, and it also comes with the cable and remote you need to use it with your TV. It’s called the Boxee Box and it costs $200 and doesn’t require a monthly fee.

    For all these months I’ve been working with a team to design the Box and its remote control, and everything in between to get it to the market.

    Today, I’m proud to announce that the Boxee Box is available to buy in over 30 countries (Tell them it’s even available on Amazon!). We’re having a big party tonight in New York to celebrate. Wish you could be here with us.

    Anyway, hope this helps, expect your own Box to arrive in the mail soon.

    Love,
    Zach

    CC: The Internet. Some folks are out there are scratching their heads, too.

  10. Svpply.com I’ve been working on a project called Svpply led by Ben Pieratt and Eric Jacobsen and we just opened up registration after being invite-only for about a year. We did all of this to answer a question: If you could build a physical store with shelves of goods that change depending on who walked in, then how would its online catalog work? To simulate a solution, we released a bookmarklet (think ‘Instapaper for products’) so that our friends could keep track of goods they recommend or need. This effectively created a personal store for each person, reflective of their preferences and style. We iterated by tracing the cowpaths we observed, which led us to create a service that allows you to organize your own “Svpply” (pronounced Supply) as well as follow others with taste you appreciate. As a result, you have a clutter-free shopping experience where only goods bound to be useful or tasteful to you are surfaced. One behavior I’ve noticed is that I prefer to browse items from a particular store on Svpply rather than the retailer’s own site, if only because the design is consistent and clean. For example, Manufactum.com represented on Svpply. So, here’s my Svpply. You’re welcome to register for your own. Feedback is encouraged.

    Svpply.com

    I’ve been working on a project called Svpply led by Ben Pieratt and Eric Jacobsen and we just opened up registration after being invite-only for about a year. We did all of this to answer a question: If you could build a physical store with shelves of goods that change depending on who walked in, then how would its online catalog work?

    To simulate a solution, we released a bookmarklet (think ‘Instapaper for products’) so that our friends could keep track of goods they recommend or need. This effectively created a personal store for each person, reflective of their preferences and style.

    We iterated by tracing the cowpaths we observed, which led us to create a service that allows you to organize your own “Svpply” (pronounced Supply) as well as follow others with taste you appreciate. As a result, you have a clutter-free shopping experience where only goods bound to be useful or tasteful to you are surfaced.

    One behavior I’ve noticed is that I prefer to browse items from a particular store on Svpply rather than the retailer’s own site, if only because the design is consistent and clean. For example, Manufactum.com represented on Svpply.

    So, here’s my Svpply. You’re welcome to register for your own. Feedback is encouraged.

  11. Patrick, thanks for designing Boxee’s new t-shirts. You’re a really nice buddy.

    Patrick, thanks for designing Boxee’s new t-shirts. You’re a really nice buddy.

  12. Don’t have a picture of the finished shed yet, but it’s done. We added a corrugated steel roof on Saturday. Just need to chop up 3 cords of wood for a winter’s worth of furnace-fired hot tubbing! Woodshed, installing roof runners (by J. Cooke)

    Don’t have a picture of the finished shed yet, but it’s done. We added a corrugated steel roof on Saturday.

    Just need to chop up 3 cords of wood for a winter’s worth of furnace-fired hot tubbing!

    Woodshed, installing roof runners (by J. Cooke)

  13. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich.

    Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich.

  14. Cool. Just saw Vimeo listed as an export preset in Adobe Premiere.

    Cool. Just saw Vimeo listed as an export preset in Adobe Premiere.

  15. 21 October 2010

    61 notes

    Reblogged from
    pile

    I can’t believe how big our little Vimeo is growing.

    I can’t believe how big our little Vimeo is growing.

    (Source: pile)