James Siminoff

I am currently the Chief Inventor at Edison Jr President of NobelBiz and Chief Strategy Advisor of Ditech Networks (DITC). The past is on LinkedIn This blog is about my life as a serial entrepreneur, husband, traveler, inventor and father. [email protected] (function(){ var acc = "acc_128d155_pub";var st ="css";var or= "v";var e=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];var d=document.createElement("script");d.src=('https:' == document.location.protocol ?'https://' : 'http://') +"engine.influads.com/show/"+or+"/"+st+"/"+acc;d.type="text/javascript"; d.async=true; d.defer=true; e.parentNode.insertBefore(d,e);})(); Feedjit Live Blog Stats

[siminoff-blog-blog]

6 Years Ago I Started This Blog

Tumblr just emailed me a little congrats thing that 6 years ago today I started this blog. It was kind of funny timing to get the email as for some reason this summer I just stopped using it and recently was thinking I need to at least post something here as to not just have it end without a word.

Not really sure why I stopped but for some reason I lost interest in writing about stuff publicly.  This blog was never supposed to be a chore and I always enjoyed doing it until I did not.  Not sure if I will pick it up again or not, I still have a ton of shit to say and a lot of opinions, just not that motivated to write about them.

So until then, I think this will be the last post, for a total of 1,629 posts over a period of 6 years...

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Just got back from picking up the first factory samples for DoorBot in China.  It was such a great milestone for us to achieve and one that I will never forget as I got to share it with my best friend.

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Another hard day at the office for our intern Colin

[fred-wilson]

The Lean Startup movement is great, but this book starts where most of those books end and takes you through the ‘so you have a product that works in-market – now what?’ questions”

Only Once – Matt Blumberg (via fred-wilson)

Look forward to reading Matt's new book. Just wish it would be ready for the summer.

[qwikiblog]

Today, we’re thrilled to announce that Qwiki is joining Yahoo!

On a journey that took us from NYC to San Francisco and back again, the Qwiki team has spent the past few years creating products and technology that make it easy to share and discover stories.

It has been extremely…

[yahoo]

We’re excited to announce that Yahoo! acquired Qwiki - a company that uses awesome  technology to bring together pictures, music and video to capture the art of storytelling.

Have you ever listened to an old song and all of a sudden a favorite vacation, concert, or summer memory pops into your mind?  The Qwiki app automatically turns pictures and videos that you already have on your iPhone into quick, beautiful movies to share, including transitions and a soundtrack.

Sharing a Qwiki is easy, whether you want to share your favorite moments from Coachella with your Facebook friends or celebrate the best moments from your sister’s wedding.

We will continue to support the Qwiki app, and the team will join Yahoo! in our New York city office to reimagine Yahoo!’s storytelling experience.  Stay tuned … there’s much more to come!   

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Huge congrats to Doug and the Qwiki team.  Honored to have been a adviser and friend during their journey!

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Edison Junior summer BBQ

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Company BBQ tonight.

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Amazing sunrise on the way into New York this morning.

[minimalmac]

Intention (by Apple)

[parislemon]

“There are a thousand no’s.”

[siminoff-blog-blog]

Awesome Apple ad.

[staff]

Everyone, I’m elated to tell you that Tumblr will be joining Yahoo.

Before touching on how awesome this is, let me try to allay any concerns: We’re not turning purple. Our headquarters isn’t moving. Our team isn’t changing. Our roadmap isn’t changing. And our mission – to empower creators to...

[siminoff-blog-blog]

Congrats to David and the Tumblr team. Awesome job on building a awesome company and now a awesome outcome!

[buzzfeed]

[laughingsquid]

George Takei Responds to Teenage ‘Traditional’ Marriage Fans With Humorous Signs

[fishingboatproceeds]

1. Shailene Woodley is a brilliant actress and Golden Globe nominee. I cannot think of any 18-year-old actress who has received the kind of critical acclaim that she has (she also won an Independent Spirit Award).

She auditioned for The Fault in Our Stars not because she needs the part (I mean, she’s in the new Spider Man movie, for God’s sakes) but because she loves the book. Her depth of understanding were immediately obvious in the audition and for me there could be no one else to play Hazel. (There were a bunch of really good auditions, but Shailene just understood Hazel as I imagined her.)

I am not particularly concerned with physical looks; Hollywood can fix that stuff. (Remember when Nicole Kidman became Virginia Woolf?) I’m concerned with whether she can embody the voice and experience and life of Hazel. She can.

2. Ansel Elgort is also a huge fan of TFiOS (it is, in fact, his favorite book). He was a high school basketball player who also happens to be a very intellectual guy. Most importantly, when he auditioned, he became Augustus. Watching him audition with Shailene, he was just Gus and she was just Hazel. He understood Gus, and clearly had a very deep and thoughtful relationship with the book. Honestly, I’m a bit confused as to how you can dislike an actor whose work you have definitionally never seen, since his first movie isn’t out yet.

3. Novelists do not cast movies, so these were not my decisions (although I did have a lot of input). But I’m defending them because I think they’re both perfect for their parts (and I’d tell you if I felt otherwise).

4. There seems to be some concern that Ansel and Shailene are playing siblings in a different movie. I guess I can understand that, but they’re actors. They can play different roles. They’ll look different and act different and be different. I mean, no one watched Silver Linings Playbook and thought, “When did Katniss move to the suburbs of Philadelphia?”

If the movie works, you’ll sit down in the theater and you won’t say, “Oh look it’s Shailene Woodley,” or, “Oh, look, it’s Tris from Divergent.” You’ll say, “Holy wow Hazel Grace.”

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Erin's latest movie is cast. I can't wait to see this one.

[bijan]

We need to be angry and empathize with the victims without being scared. Our fears would play right into the perpetrators’ hands — and magnify the power of their victory for whichever goals whatever group behind this, still to be uncovered, has. We don’t have to be scared, and we’re not powerless. We actually have all the power here, and there’s one thing we can do to render terrorism ineffective: Refuse to be terrorized.

The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On - Bruce Schneier - The Atlantic

Inspired by this. And I’m gonna run the fucking boston marathon next year. 

(via bijan)

I was thinking the same thing. Time to run Boston.

[spiegelman]

irrigatin’ some herbs, son

[vpbiden-deactivated20140201]

In which Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan explains menopause to an anti-gay marriage lawyer

[siminoff-blog-blog]

In other industries, this is called predatory pricing, and many forms of it are illegal because they’re so destructive to healthy businesses and the welfare of an economy. But the tech industry is far less regulated, younger, and faster-moving than most industries. We celebrate our ability to do things that are illegal or economically infeasible in other markets with productive-sounding words like “disruption”.

Marco

[vruba]

I run into some version of this essay by some moneybags twig-bishop about once a year, and it bugs me every time.

Here’s the thing. Wealth is not a number of dollars. It is not a number of material possessions. It’s having options and the ability to take on risk.

As with carrying, so with owning in general. Poor people don’t have clutter because they’re too dumb to see the virtue of living simply; they have it to reduce risk.

When rich people present the idea that they’ve learned to live lightly as a paradoxical insight, they have the idea of wealth backwards. You can only have that kind of lightness through wealth.