The latest from TechCrunch
- Zuckerberg Vs. D'Angelo, 'Before They Were Stars' And 'Where Are They Now?'
- NSFW: Yep, Montblanc Killed my MacBook Pro Today
| Zuckerberg Vs. D'Angelo, 'Before They Were Stars' And 'Where Are They Now?' | Top |
| "The playlist ran out on my computer, and I thought, 'You know, there's really no reason why my computer shouldn't just know what I want to learn next,” he explains. "So that's what we made." – Mark Zuckerberg, Harvard Crimson interview, 2004 Above is the Team page for Synapse , the Pandora-like music recommendation plugin Mark Zuckerberg and former Facebook engineer and Quora founder Adam D’Angelo built in 2002, while they were in high school together. You can access the entire site through the Web Archive here . Aol, Microsoft and WinAmp all expressed interest in buying the WinAmp program and Zuckerberg and D’Angelo reportedly received up offers of up to 2 million dollars, which they famously turned down. Items in the above image presented without commentary: The fact that high school student D’Angelo is described as being “hung like a horse.” The consistent references to “Programmer Gods” woven throughout the site. The fact that the Synapse slogan is “My brain is better than yours.” The Coolio reference. Whatever “If you hit it and that thing feels deeper, say his name” means (shudder). Hey, we’ve all written strange things on the Internet, and most of us would have lived our lives differently had we known they would one day be searchable (or in this case, Wayback Machine -able). However, what is most interesting about this Team page is the fact that D’Angelo’s Quora and Zuckerberg’s Facebook are now in direct competition over their respective Q&A products. And there seems to be some contention over just how friendly this competition is: Facebook’s Director of Product Blake Ross is the subject of an entire thread on Quora called “The Oct 2010 Blake Ross Quoragate Farrago” where there is much speculation over exactly why he unable to login to Quora and why his account there was deleted in early October. There’s also lot of talk on Quora AND Facebook Questions about a possible dispute between Facebook and Quora, with one thread accusing Facebook of blocking Quora users from gaining access to Questions over the summer. Ross tells TechCrunch that this is not the case and that, “W e don’t feel animosity toward Quora. It’s a terrific product. I worked closely with all of the founders in the past . I wish the media would stop trying to turn Silicon Valley into TMZ.” Ross also tells TechCrunch that whatever happened with his Quora account has “been resolved.” Yet he still doesn’t know what exactly happened to his account. Busy Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who recently asked his first Facebook Question , hasn’t been active on Quora since January 2009. No matter what Quora or Facebook Questions thread you subscribe to, the reality is that Facebook Questions, if rolled out to all users and executed correctly, could kill Quora. The Facebook Questions beta currently has one million users, while the Quora site has around 155K (very passionate) users. Facebook wins the numbers game by default, but many hold that Quora retains a better user experience in terms of quality of answers and a strong community — So it remains to be seen which former Synapse co-founder will ultimately be “the king of the spreadsheets,” at least in the Q&A space. CrunchBase Information Mark Zuckerberg Adam D'Angelo Blake Ross Facebook Quora Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| NSFW: Yep, Montblanc Killed my MacBook Pro Today | Top |
| Last Wednesday, I got my hands on a new Meisterstück Le Grand Traveller pen . I haven't touched my MacBook Pro since. It's twelve months old. RIP. Stop. Take a deep breath. Before my opening paragraph gets you all worked up, consider what I'm saying here. I'm saying that my TechCrunch options just cashed out and I've just used some of the money to buy an awesome new pen. And it's beautiful. And I want to write a post all about how awesome and beautiful it is. No – wait – I've just looked back at that lede, and you're right. I am saying more than that. I'm saying that my new pen is so perfect in every way that my purchasing it spells the inevitable end of my MacBook. What's more, I genuinely and unironically believe that the awesomeness of my pen is such that its halo effect will render your MacBook – and those of everyone you hold dear – useless as well. But, still, hear me out. In the next few hundred words I'll explain all of the myriad reasons why my new Meisterstück Le Grand Traveller – a snip at just shy of $800 (inc tax and ink) – is superior in every way to my $1200 Mac Book Pro. And when you've finished reading, I'm confident that you too will want to trade in your clunky old laptop for this masterpiece of German manufacturing. If you don’t, I'll eat my power cable. After all, I don't need it any more. I mean, seriously, did I mention how amazing my freaking pen is? Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "but the Meisterstück has been around since 1924 and it hasn't killed the MacBook yet". That's true, but until this week I hadn't bought one. Now that I have, and now that I've written this post about it, surely we can all agree that it's only a matter of time before the streets are filled with the smell of burning aluminum and glass while former bloggers look on, describing the scenes in their diaries using shiny black fountain pens. But I’m getting ahead of myself: let's make a side by side comparison… My MacBook Pro is 14.35 wide and weighs 5.6lbs. The Meisterstück Le Grand? How about 4.2 inches long and less than a pound in weight. Unbelievable. Of course much of that size difference is down to the lack of a hard drive or battery or any electronic parts in the Meisterstück, but that just adds to its awesomeness. Also, when my MacBook gets warm it sounds like a jetplane taking off – my Meisterstück? It's literally silent, even when it's operating at full speed. No one believes me when I tell them that, but it's true. And how about battery life? My MacBook manages a decent 3-4 hours on a full charge, but compare that to the Meisterstück: I've been carrying it around in my pocket for five days – using it constantly – and I haven't had to plug it in once. Montblanc are killing it with this pen! But there's more! When you get your Meisterstück and remove the cap, you will find exactly zero keys inside. My MacBook has 78! In the Meisterstück all of those have been replaced with a single nib, capable of producing not just letters and numbers but also signs, shapes and runes. For a writer like me, that's gold! (Note: the nib is actually gold) To be honest, I feel a bit silly having carried around all those keys for so long – the truth is, there are at least 10% that I haven't ever used. I mean what's the "^" even for ? Ok, so that's hardware: how about applications? Of course, this is where the MacBook should have the edge: after all, with my MacBook I'm able to listen to music, write and send documents and use social media tools like Twitter. Surely my Meisterstück can't compete with all that? You wanna bet? Here I am, not just listening to music, but ACTUALLY PLAYING IT…. Twitter? No problem! And how about writing and mailing documents, or publishing blog posts? Well, ok, I admit that's a little slower with the Meisterstück. I started writing this column shortly after MG published his anthology of love poems to his new MacBook Air, and it would definitely have been funnier if I'd been able to publish sooner – but first I had to write it longhand…. …..then mail it to AOL to be transcribed…. ….the wait for it to be published. But, as any MacBook Air user will tell you, sometimes you have to take a few technological steps backward in order to make a giant leap forward. And those leaps just go on and on: my Meisterstück has a pocket clip, a removable cap and a brass insert capable of holding two ink cartridges (along with the six spares kept in the leather carry pouch). I called Apple a few hours ago and asked if ANY ONE of these features was on their roadmap for the MacBook. They hung up on me, but I think we all know the answer! Yeah – Rest In Pieces, MacBook! With my purchase of a Moleskine notebook three years ago, I put the wheels in motion to kill my MacBook. This week, by purchasing an awesome pen, I kicked off my final assault. There will be no survivors. Now if you'll excuse us, my pen and I are heading to Hawaii for a few days of "couple time" away from all you lameos and your tired old "crap books". Try not to be too jealous when you see my pen gliding through the x-ray machine without me having to remove it from its case! See you in the future, suckers! | |
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