Disruptions: Start-Ups Keep Revenue at Zero to Cash In on Acquisition – NYTimes.com:

Indeed, this madness was invented in the late ’90s and helped perpetuate the first dot-com meltdown. “Mark-to-mystery was developed as a large part of the last bubble, but it’s gotten a lot worse this time around,” Mr. Kedrosky said.

When this next bubble pops — and it will pop — the idea to make no money can finally pop, too. Then investors can start working with companies to build businesses that have long-term financial goals, instead of just building a short-term mystery.

Source: Daring Fireball

Air-O-Swiss Travel Ultrasonic Humidifier:

It’s a little bigger than a Macbook Pro power supply, and twice as thick. It has a clever water reservoir, any .5 liter or smaller water bottle snaps into a fitting, and will supply 6-10 hours of vapor, depending on the setting.

Berlin apartments are as dry as a brush fire, so we also ran it all day in the living room, and even in a large room, it made the air so much more pleasant. Then we ran the Air Swiss all night for the baby, and again it performed perfectly. That’s day and night for 30-days non-stop; it’s built solid.

The only drawback is that there is a rather bright blue light that illuminates the vapor when the unit turns on, which changes to a red light when the water bottle is empty. If you’re a light sensitive sleeper, it might be an issue.

Source: Cool Tools

Sergey Brin is worried:

You mean like how google drives around filming the world, mapping your home wifi network, and when you complain tells you “Set up your network better”? That’s scary, but of course, that’s not what he’s scared of. Because that would be evil and google’s not evil.

Brin said he and co-founder Larry Page would not have been able to create Google if the internet was dominated by Facebook. “You have to play by their rules, which are really restrictive,” he said. “The kind of environment that we developed Google in, the reason that we were able to develop a search engine, is the web was so open. Once you get too many rules, that will stifle innovation.”
How about the environment where Google can kill your adwords account at any time, keep your money, and not even have to tell you why. Or the clause wherein if they think you knew about a “violation” of the Adwords ToS, which of course, they never tell you what that violation actually is, because it would reveal “proprietary” data. Funny how Google is open only when it’s convenient. So a company well-known for arbitrary application of rules, and heavy-handed handling of violations of those rules that are never actually revealed to the people who violated said rules is “worried that facebook’s rules are restrictive.”. Clearly Sergey is an atheist. No one actually afraid of a hell would be that much of a hypcritical twonk.

Source: bynkii.com

Twitter’s “Innovator’s Patent Agreement”:

A truly innovative stance would be for a large technology company to avoid filing patents,2 and to lobby aggressively for progressive patent reform to make that a practical choice for every technology company. But that’s not what Twitter has done.

The Innovator’s Patent Agreement is a well-intentioned gesture. But that’s all it is.

Source: Marco.org

Rejected By VCs, Pebble Watch Raises $3.8M on Kickstarter:

Then he hit a roadblock. A big one. Migicovsky couldn’t raise more money. Few investors were interested in betting on a hardware startup, or dealing with the headaches that often come with manufacturing goods.
So Migicovsky posted his watch on Kickstarter, a “crowd-funding” website where anyone can pledge money for creative projects that have yet to be completed. In the last few days, roughly 26,000 people plunked down their cash, with many pledging hundreds of dollars and about a half dozen folks promising $10,000 or more.

Google’s Open Web:

The assumption here is that the only way to search is through Google, and that the “open Internet” is only what Google can index and sell ads against.

Source: Daring Fireball