Ramine Darabiha http://siliconangle.com/ramine Entrepreneur, Nerd, Gamer and occasional Blogger Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:26:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 My readings http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/03/02/my-readings/ http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/03/02/my-readings/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:26:58 +0000 Ramine Darabiha http://siliconangle.com/ramine/?p=173 I read approximately 300 news stories every day, and go through ~1500 news headlines. This is both a requirement for my work and a passion of mine.

I love exploring what's new in online business and gaming, and Google Reader is my friend :)   I'd like to share with you a list of the blogs I follow.

I've organized them in bundles, so you can follow them easily as well. If you like it, please post some comments!

Venture Capital Lots of blogs from VCs or about the latest VC developments.

Blogs (Business) General web/biz related news.

Startups:

Blogs (General) Startup news from the big name blogs

Blogs (Finlands) Blogs from Finland

Blogs (Rest of the world) Startups in Asia, Middle East, etc

Gaming:

Games (Mainstream)

Games (Business)

Games (Casual) (iPhone, Facebook games)

Games (Retro)

Games (Independent)

]]> http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/03/02/my-readings/feed/ 0 My bad experience with Nokia http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/03/02/my-bad-experience-with-nokia/ http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/03/02/my-bad-experience-with-nokia/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:06:49 +0000 Ramine Darabiha http://siliconangle.com/ramine/?p=167

Most of my entourage here in Finland seems to have a very good opinion of the local mobile giant and their products. Mine hasbeen extremely poor. I would like to share this with you.

Phones and apps

My first mobile was a Nokia 3310. Good phone, it made calls and sent SMS, decent battery, nothing to complain about.
A few years later, after becoming interested in the early Winmo 3-4-5 smartphones, I decided to buy an N95. It had been marketed to me by a few friends in Finland, as a killer phone. As a phone, it was great. The mp3 player and camera were pretty good too. That's it. I wanted a phone that would be great for Internet, and applications.
I remember back in 2006, Nokia people telling me that "Widsets" would be the future of the app market. They could make it easy for developers to create and distrubute apps to hundreds of millions of consumers. The service was extremely badly marketed. Yet, I did try it. I spent several days trying to get apps that would manage my Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Delicious, Skype, IM. None of that worked proprely. I tried many different applications. Nothing worked. Later I also tried Ovi, which didn't offer me a wide app offering, and made it very difficult to buy apps.
I looked into the Nokia Internet tablets, but I saw very poor app support, and also no support for phone calls (?). At that point I decided to give up and buy an iPhone.
I have to say I was quite surprised by the arrogant stance the company took regarding the iPhone. Most of their communication was calling their phones "iPhone killers", and belittled the achievements of Apple's first phone. It's almost as if the company was disconnected from reality.
Now the N900 is launched. Its app offering is still extremely poor. I was genuienly interested by the phone though, due to its open nature. I thought: since Nokia has great Bluetooth, and Video-out, I could use the phone as a replacement to my laptop! I'd have my office with me all the time in my pocket. I was even willing to sacrifice iPhone apps to use that feature.
It turned out the N900 was not so open after all, with an incomplete BT support. Requests from users for this feature on the forum were met with "how about you do it yourself?" remarks from Nokia staff. I also do not understand the company's persistence in not offering the Nokia Ovi Suite to Mac users. You would think that after several years of requests, they would respond.
I bought two Nokia Bluetooth headsets (BH604 and BH905), which were both expensive. I went to the Nokia flagship store in Helsinki, which offered them for twice the cost of online shops. When I mentioned that to the sales lady, she first said that was impossible, then almost insulted me when I proved the countrary by showing her the link on my phone. Both headsets broke within 6 months.
Recently, while using Nokia maps with my friends to go to a cottage, the service got us lost in the forest, by repeating contradictory directions.
Gaming

In 2003, just prior to the launch of the Ngage, I was involved in some of the largest handheld gaming sites (Emuholic, Gp32emu). I remember talking to a very arrogant spokesperson at ECTS (back then the largest gaming trade show in Europe), telling me they "got the community" and had "killer technology".
As some of you may remember, the Ngage was a complete disaster. As a piece of hardware, the buttons were inadequate, you had to remove the battery to change games, etc. The game offering was extremely poor. It was an extremely bad phone as well, which brought the dreaded "Sidetalking" phenomena.
Nokia responded quickly in 2004 with the Ngage QD, saying that they "got it" and listened to the community. New features included cheap plastic, removed MP3 player, and lower phone call quality, without increasing the game offering.
In 2008, Ngage was relaunched. This time, Nokia said that they had been listening to the community and learned from their mistakes. The relaunched Ngage was strongly "inspired" by Xbox Live. It also featured an extremely poor game offering.
Conclusion

My experience of Nokia products and services is a series of disapointments. There is a consistant pattern of inferior products, which are marketed with false claims.  It's like the ex girlfriend who promises you that she fixed everything this time. And each time, I fell for it.
My attempts to submit feedback have been met systematically with aggressive response.
To date, I have never been able to play a high-quality game on a Nokia device, nor have I been able to use advanced web applications.

3 Comments

    At 02/03/2010, mikkokemppe wrote: I love my iPhone as well!! Sometimes our good Finnish qualities of persistence and perseverance unfortunately seem to turn into stubbornness and obstinacy. Too bad for Nokia!At 02/03/2010, Ramine Darabiha» Blog Archive » My bad experience with Nokia Thank god for 3G wrote: [...] the original post here:  Ramine Darabiha» Blog Archive » My bad experience with Nokia By admin | category: nokia | tags: all-these, ces, distrubute-apps, facts-since, future, [...]At 04/03/2010, itsMe wrote: Nokia doesn't innovate. They got the cheap commodity hardware and can sell it of course Nokia is on the way down. They still sit on the cash to wake up and do something, but big companies like Nokia rarely come back from the dead. The only hope I see for Nokia is buying startups.
]]> http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/03/02/my-bad-experience-with-nokia/feed/ 3 A sad comparison http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/25/a-sad-comparison/ http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/25/a-sad-comparison/#comments Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:44:03 +0000 Ramine Darabiha http://siliconangle.com/ramine/?p=164 Here are two bits of news I have read today.
I read that the USA just introduced a bill for the Startup Visa.
In Finland, there is discussion to tax entrepreneurs twice, up to 50%.
I'd like you to ponder that. That is all I have to say about this.

1 Comments

    At 01/03/2010, gayleguf wrote: Certainly. I agree with told all above. We can communicate on this theme. Here or in PM. chewable ciallis free samples Wanna very nice joke?)) What's the difference between boogers and broccoli? Kids won't eat broccoli.
]]> http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/25/a-sad-comparison/feed/ 1 Gamers Unite!! Google Buzz group on Steam. http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/16/gamers-unite-google-buzz-group-on-steam/ http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/16/gamers-unite-google-buzz-group-on-steam/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:12:09 +0000 ramine-darabiha http://ramine.net/?p=158 I've noticed that a lot of people on Google Buzz are gamers, so I thought it'd be fun to play together online some time.
I've created a Steam group, so we can find each other easily :)
Google Buzz community on Steam.
Feel free to add me on Steam too: rameen
]]> http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/16/gamers-unite-google-buzz-group-on-steam/feed/ 0 Unofficial Google Buzz Gadget for iGoogle http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/15/unofficial-google-buzz-gadget/ http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/15/unofficial-google-buzz-gadget/#comments Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:16:27 +0000 ramine-darabiha http://ramine.net/?p=153 My friend Igor Burattini and I have made an unofficial Google Buzz gadget for your iGoogle.

Get the gadget HERE.

(Thanks to Ryan Jones for the better screenshot)

Also, we've submitted it to the desktop gadget list, so hopefully you can use it on your Google Desktop soon!

11 Comments

]]> http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/15/unofficial-google-buzz-gadget/feed/ 11 Why I'm betting on Google Buzz and leaving Twitter http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/13/why-im-betting-on-google-buzz-and-leaving-twitter/ http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/13/why-im-betting-on-google-buzz-and-leaving-twitter/#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 11:58:50 +0000 ramine-darabiha http://ramine.net/?p=151 Earlier this week when Google Buzz came out, my initial impressions were quite negative.

I'll try explain my thoughts on the service, and why I think it will be a winner.

My main gripes with the service so far:

1) Lack of friends

This is the major issue with the service. I have lots of friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Why would I spend time migrating all my friends from each service there, just to get very similar functionality?

2) Super difficult RSS integration

I tried for a few hours to integrate custom RSS feeds. It's so straightforward on Friendfeed, why not on Buzz?

In the end I just gave up and put my Friendfeed in Buzz. Let's just hope Facebook doesn't pull the plug on Friendfeed until Google fixes the issue.

3) There is no standalone page

Right now you have to keep bouncing between Gmail and your Google Profile like an idiot :)

It'd be nice to have this somewhat centralized.

4) Privacy concerns?

To be honest, I stopped worrying about privacy when I started becoming more active on Facebook.

However, I'm not thrilled about the idea of receiving spam because of Buzz.

Why do I think Buzz will be a winner then?

1) Early adopters

It's pretty impressive that most of my Twitter contacts are already on Buzz.

It shouldn't have been a surprise though. Twitter is mostly early adopters, power users, whatever you wanna call them. As a result, leaving Twitter doesn't seem so bad now.

2) More than Twitter and Friendfeed (but less than Facebook)

Unlike Twitter, it's more than just text. Comments are threaded. You can reply in Gmail. You can post pics and videos. It can do pretty much all that Friendfeed can, or at least has the potential to do so.

I also like the more advanced features like search, the "people near you" feature.

3) Service integration

Buzz is integrated in Reader (that's partly a down side as well), Maps, Gmail, Contacts, Profile.

Twitter is integrated in nothing.

4) Let's be friends

At the end of the day, it's not so difficult to add friends again. We've all done this in the past when we joined FB and Twitter. So let's be friends :)

3 Comments

    At 13/02/2010, mike wrote: the big win for buzz is that it is a version 2 of something, built by a new team, but with advice from the old one. Everyone I have spoken to says something like, "it's nice to have Jaiku back" While buzz might not be the most popular thing out there, in the long run it will always be popular as it is designed to interoperate with *everything* via various open web standards it is supporting and championing (see the API docs for the list). The future is not in silo or standalone systems but in federated systemsAt 13/02/2010, Why I’m betting on Google Buzz and leaving Twitter | Booredatwork wrote: [...] Nice little article by a fellow Google Buzzer Ramine Darabiha via his site Ramine.net [...]At 14/02/2010, Sami Paju wrote: But how does that all fit into the internets being a series of tubes? //sami
]]> http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/13/why-im-betting-on-google-buzz-and-leaving-twitter/feed/ 3 Blogging about Finland's startups http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/08/blogging-about-finlands-startups/ http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/08/blogging-about-finlands-startups/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:09:12 +0000 ramine-darabiha http://ramine.net/?p=149 I've been asked by Nerdstalker to make some videos of the startup scene here.

I'm going to make a series of video interview with different startups, both young and "old", to present them to a US audience.

The idea for now is that I want to cover only -startups- (eg: young tech companies) that are international or interesting to foreign readers (maybe we can extend that later :) .

If you've got any requests or suggestions, feel free to contact me!

1 Comments

    At 12/02/2010, @silverton wrote: Nerdstalker rulez! Great to meet you, Ramine. Will definitely report any good blips on the radar, post haste. Onward!
]]> http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/08/blogging-about-finlands-startups/feed/ 1 MySites – status of January http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/03/mysites-status-of-january/ http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/03/mysites-status-of-january/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:56:11 +0000 ramine-darabiha http://ramine.net/?p=147 MySites speed should be back to normal now!

As I explained earlier, MySites has been getting considerably more traffic lately.

Many people have been asking me why the site has been so slow. The reason is that we weren't ready to grow so fast.

We didn't expect things to grow at that rate., and no matter the effort, traffic grew faster. Sorry about this.

We took the decision to slow down most of our Chinese traffic, so that our Western users get the same experience as before.

The last post I did about this was on January 10th. Here is what it looks like until January 31st.

Lessons learned:

- You always think "it's a good problem to have", until your users can't get to the page and you're not delivering them the service they expect.

- Internet growth can be unpredictably fast.

4 Comments

    At 03/02/2010, Vladimir wrote: Good to hear that your service is back! :) Keep on growing!At 03/02/2010, Riku wrote: Well, hope you can keep delivering a good service. Even with scaling problems, that graph is sweet.At 03/02/2010, SonjaK wrote: Ramine: Impressive growth! It is always a pity when you have to involve your existing customers in a test like this but then again how would you _realistically_ simulate such a situation (growth, scalability) virtually. Very valuable lesson learned IMO regarding the balance between growth and quality of service.At 03/02/2010, JeppeKM wrote: Looks quite impressive, Ramine! I look forward to see how the graph looks next month :)
]]> http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/02/03/mysites-status-of-january/feed/ 4 Global Game Jam (I made a video game!) http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/01/31/global-game-jam-i-made-a-video-game/ http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/01/31/global-game-jam-i-made-a-video-game/#comments Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:18:05 +0000 ramine-darabiha http://ramine.net/?p=144 This weekend, I was at Global Game Jam.

It's a worldwide event, in 40 countries, where people get together in small groups, and have 48 hours to create a game from scratch.

Here is our game:

The Ultimate Showdown!

You can download the game here.

It is a mixture of:

- Classic RPG battles (like Final Fantasy)
- Poker
- Rock Paper Scissors
... Mixed with Internet meme elements!
-------------------------------------------------
Credits:
Ramine Darabiha Game Designer
Marco Rapino Developer
Carl-Anthon Kranck Designer
Sanna Paananen Artist
"The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" song used with the permission of Neil Cicierega.
]]> http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/01/31/global-game-jam-i-made-a-video-game/feed/ 0 Repost: Lessons learned in Silicon Valley http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/01/22/repost-lessons-learned-in-silicon-valley/ http://siliconangle.com/ramine/2010/01/22/repost-lessons-learned-in-silicon-valley/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:18:42 +0000 ramine-darabiha http://ramine.net/?p=140 This morning I received an email from a student who's enthusiastic about his new startup. He asked me about what to do in San Francisco.

I forwarded him a list of events to follow, and a video presentation about what I've learned during my trip there.

Since this advice doesn't get old, here's a link to the video :)

http://vimeo.com/8341355

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