Blog Archives
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The FaceBook IPO - The Bleeding Edge Blog
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Wednesday May 23, 2012
All in all, I was pretty unimpressed by the FaceBook IPO last Friday (NASDAQ: FB). Biggest tech IPO ever? Wait a year and see whether it holds up as well as Google. Lots of millionaires and billionaires? We'll see if they still are when they are permitted to cash out. In truth, the IPO was a lot less interesting than the two major side shows that went with it. The first of these is the story that Eduardo Saverin, a minor partner in the firm who has announced he will give up his US citizenship in order to save $600 million in taxes. The outrage his correct reading of the tax code is coming mostly from members of Congress, those who created this bloated, loophole-laden laws they now profess to lament. He should have contributed to their... -
The Pirate Party
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Thursday May 10, 2012When it comes to copyright laws in the United States, we’ve made two enormous blunders. The first was when we allowed unfettered corporate greed to change the laws to a state so ridiculous that virtually no work will ever again enter the public domain; the second was when we casually allowed the emerging Internet to respond to the first blunder by simply ignoring copyrights and declaring all content to be free when downloaded from the Internet. We may pay for these blunders by seeing the emergence of a third US political party that will not only shake up our traditional two-party system but bring a broad swath of disenfranchised citizens back to the polling booths. We’re talking Pirates here. First things first. When the... -
Why Tech Patent Lawsuits Are Flying
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Sunday April 29, 2012
This week, after two years of secret negotiations and wrangling, the mega companies of Google and Oracle went to court to decide whether it is possible to patent a computer language. If the thought of this confuses you, be grateful you are not the judge or the new members of the jury. It’s the tech equivalent of me patenting the English language, and then suing this blog for $6.1 billion dollars for using or printing this column in my patented language. [Memo to my editor: my attorneys will be in touch in the morning!] [ Memo in return... "Funny joke, Dave. Our lawyers are on speed-dial. "] All of this might be just a curious phase in the life cycle of the tech industry, except that it really does affect accountants and how they... -
Technology and Airplanes
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Tuesday March 27, 2012
About half of the time when I fly, I forget to turn off my cell phone during taxi and takeoff. For that indiscretion, I am an international terrorist responsible for… for… Well, for nothing. Because as the Federal Aviation Administration well knows from its own tests, there is absolutely no reason to turn off your electronic devices during taxi, takeoff and landing. There are no airplanes that have fallen from the sky. No accidents attributable to Alec Baldwin, busted for playing a video game with friends while sitting on the taxiway. No instruments going haywire. In fact, reports are that pilots use tablets and other electronics in the cockpit throughout their flights. This entire ban was a bit of politically correct nonsense... -
I'm Going To Hate Windows 8
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Saturday March 17, 2012
In my years in the tech industries, I have tested just about every kind of software and hardware there is. Usually so I can write about them, or help to make sense of their underlying concepts. When you live with software and hardware that is not ready for public release, you get a lot of problems and paper cuts. Which is why my column for the magazine is entitled The Bleeding Edge. Working with stuff that can lock up your system, delete your data or cause burn spots on your monitor has led me (and others who do this for a living) to develop three basic rules: Backup your files and your system. Every day. Seriously. Read the manual, if there is one, for every single thing you hook to your computer. Never, ever, ever run a public... -
The Tyranny of a Tiny Minority
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Tuesday March 6, 2012It began with a petition to stop members of Congress from passing a set of flawed copyright bills. By the time the bills were withdrawn from consideration a few weeks later, untold thousands of signatures had been collected and presented in opposition to the bills – a fact that may in future consideration of copyright protection keep things in a more stable and measured tone. But in the back rooms of the political parties, people paid attention. Stirring up the Internet masses and getting them to sign a petition – regardless of whether they understood the issues – was seen as a powerful force that could be exploited. And so we are now awash with petition pleas. They splash across FaceBook, clutter our email, are... -
Speaking To Your Computer
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Saturday February 18, 2012Last month in my "Bleeding Edge" column of the CPA Practice Advisor Magazine, I wrote about the growing war between Microsoft, Apple and Google over the newest tech frontier -- voice control of your computing devices. If you don't subscribe to the magazine, shame on you! But here is a link to the column: www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/10601880 . All three companies want to have the winning system that most easily controls your computers -- desktop, laptop, tablet and smart phone -- by voice alone. And they may have to hurry. Because the US Department of Transportation is now pushing for new national regulations to prohibit virtually anything from being done on any computing device by the driver of any vehicle. Mark Hachman at PCMag.com... -
Why Extending Payables Is A Really Bad idea
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Sunday February 12, 2012In any economic downturn, companies at some point will consider improving their cash flow by “extending” the payment cycle for their vendors. Larger companies in particular will use this strategy, since they have fewer worries about being cut off by suppliers and are not dependent on their D&B ratings to obtain credit. Typically, this strategy involves stretching the payments from net 30 days to 45, 60 or even 90 days. Sadly, it is accounting professionals who often recommend this strategy to their corporate clients, not always taking the time to explain the down side of extending payables. And that is unfortunate, because there are four effects of extending payables that should make it a strategy of last resort, not the common... -
Oh, And I Also Write
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Friday February 3, 2012If you search for my name on Google, you will find that Dave McClure is a successful venture capitalist and business consultant of “Master of 500 Hats” fame. The thing is, that’s not me. Neither is the Dave McClure who is a senior technology guru for the Pentagon, though we both lived in Alexandria, VA, for a while. Still, I do have some secret lives beyond my blogging and writing for accounting magazines. For one thing, I have spent the last 18 years as President and CEO of the US Internet Industry Association, a trade association that works extensively on Internet policy and law. I am also co-chair of the International Internet Industry Alliance, a global policy group. I travel the world (most recently to South Africa and... -
SOPA and PIPA - What You Need To Know
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Tuesday January 17, 2012Tomorrow, web sites around the world will go dark for a period of time to protest two new laws currently being considered by the US Congress - The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). A colleague of mine, Christian Dawson of the web hosting company Servint, has been deeply involved in the battle to stop these two bills from becoming law, and offers this explanation of why both are a bad idea. People started writing laws to govern the Internet back in the mid '90s. The Internet was new and booming, and lawmakers didn't want to stifle innovation. They constructed a series of laws to govern the Internet that were very pro-business and encouraged innovation, most specifically The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and...
