Silicon Valley, despite being at the center of the digital world, is a hopelessly insular and actually rather hermetic place. Even its famous immigrant culture emphasizes joining the SV way. For all its talk of innovation, it resists almost anyone who is not part of its mainstream. Michael Wolff, How Russian Tycoon Yuri Milner Bought His Way Into Silicon Valley

Groupon (GRPN) begins trading today on NASDAQ. Nicholas Carlson did a relatively puffy piece on them last week that’s the best profile I’ve seen of Groupon so far. His version squares with the rumors I’ve heard from Chicago-area tech types that said that Andrew Mason is just the media-genic front man, and that the real brains, money and leadership came from noted Chicago entrepreneur Eric Lefkofsky. Worth a read. Nicholas Carlson - INSIDE GROUPON

Google+ triggered an online identity crisis. Here’s how I’d been managing my online identity since leaving Yahoo. joseph.by is the domain I use for all of my personal stuff (tumblr and personal email) josephby at joseph.by is the email address I use for my personal identity, including email and calendaring with Google Apps josephby at everbird.com is my work identity, used for company email and other work logins josephby at gmail.

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. “Rob Roy MacGregor: His life and times” by WH Murray via Goodreads

Realeyes and others are working on webcam based eye tracking software. Imagine being able to do an eye-tracking study on users from anywhere on the web at any time. How long until Rapleaf creates a toolbar that does this automatically? Minority Report

I’m always surprised by how little people know about how Google makes money. Here’s a handy infographic showing the most lucrative keyword clusters. Surprisingly I don’t see mesothilioma. What happened to all the ambulance chasers? Source: makeitbloom.com

If you’re tired of hearing about Lean Startups I recommend giving Fred’s post a quick read. It addresses most of the criticisms you may have heard. My only negative observation is that “being lean” is an old idea that Eric Ries has done a great job of explaining anew. When I led search on the Yahoo home page we were completely data driven. I worked with a team of great designers and engineers, and we came up with many cool (and many lame) ideas for how to improve the visibility and usefulness of search.

This almost makes me want to upgrade to a 4S. Almost. On the other hand it’s kind of sad that the iPhone product roadmap has now been reduced to just adding cute new features. I’m not convinced that siri actually works. Source: shitthatsirisays

What your email address domain says about you

pudjam666: So, It was 1998 and the dot-com boom was in full effect. I was making websites as a 22 year old freelance programmer in NYC. I charged my first client $1,400. My second client paid $5,400. The next paid $24,000. I remember the exact amounts — they were the largest checks I’d seen up til that… a blog by pud: Fucking Sue Me