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When Code Is Hot
Five Great Things About Procrastination
Dave McClure On What’s Next For 500 Startups [TCTV]
Here’s What A Facebook Response To A User Data Subpoena Looks Like
VC Giants, Thinking Smaller: Why Kleiner Perkins’ Aileen Lee Is Getting Into Seed Funding
Randi Zuckerberg Defends Her Reality Show: Hey Silicon Valley, Stop Being Snobs
That Whole “Shoulder-Surfing Facebook Accounts At Job Interviews” Thing? It’s Probably Not Really Happening
Security Company Palo Alto Networks Files For $175 Million IPO
After A Bump From SXSW, Banjo Tries To Bolster Its Position As The All-In-One Location App
On The Nokia Lumia 900 And How AT&T Is The Phone’s Only Downside
Gillmor Gang Live 04.06.12 (TCTV)
Keen On… Laura Tyson
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TechCrunch Giveaway: Two Free Tickets To Disrupt NYC #TCDisrupt
Etsy Wants to Give Female Programmers $5,000 to Attend Hacker School
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Posted: 07 Apr 2012 09:00 AM PDT

Suddenly programming is sexy. Codecademy is drawing hundreds of thousands to its online programming tutorials. “Those jumping on board say they are preparing for a future in which the Internet is the foundation for entertainment, education and nearly everything else … ensuring that they are not left in the dark ages,” says a recent New York Times piece.

The NYT’s Randall Stross went on to write about how “many professors of computer science say college graduates in every major should understand software fundamentals.” At parties these days, people are more impressed when I say I write apps than when I say I’ve had a few novels published. How weird is that?

Is this the long-fabled Triumph of the Geek? If so, it should seem unreservedly great to those of us who started programming when we were ten and haven’t much stopped since. So why does this sudden surge of enthusiasm make me feel so uneasy?

Partly, I suppose, because something like this happened once before, and it didn’t end well. Remember how hackers were hot in the late ’90s, and would-be dot-commers flooded computer-science classes everywhere? Demand for programmers back then was so high — sound familiar? — that companies hired hordes of freshly minted coders whose ability did not match their ambition. Half of every team I worked in back then was composed of people who couldn’t be trusted with anything beyond basic programming gruntwork, if that. It’s no coincidence that the best technical team I ever worked with was in 2002, right after the dot-bust weeded out all of the chaff.

But mostly, I think, I’m uneasy because it seems like the wrong people are taking up coding, for the wrong reasons.

It’s disconcerting that everyone quoted in the articles above say they want to be “literate” or “fluent”, to “understand” or to teach “computational thinking.” Nobody says they want to do something. But coding is a means, not an end. Learning how to program for its own sake is like learning French purely on the off chance that you one day find yourself in Paris. People who do that generally become people who think they know some French, only to discover, once in France, that they can’t actually communicate worth a damn. Shouldn’t people who want to take up programming have some kind of project in mind first? A purpose, however vague?

That first cited piece above begins with “Parlez-vous Python?”, a cutesy bit that’s also a pet peeve. Non-coders tend to think of different programming languages as, well, different languages. I’ve long maintained that while programming itself — “computational thinking”, as the professor put it — is indeed very like a language, “programming languages” are mere dialects; some crude and terse, some expressive and eloquent, but all broadly used to convey the same concepts in much the same way.

Like other languages, though, or like music, it’s best learned by the young. I am skeptical of the notion that many people who start learning to code in their 30s or even 20s will ever really grok the fundamental abstract notions of software architecture and design.

Stross quotes Michael Littman of Rutgers: "Computational thinking should have been covered in middle school, and it isn't, so we in the C.S. department must offer the equivalent of a remedial course." Similarly, the Guardian recently ran an excellent series of articles on why all children should be taught how to code. (One interesting if depressing side note there: the older the students, the more likely it is that girls will be peer-pressured out of the technical arena.)

That I can get behind. Codecademy and the White House teaming up to target a youthful audience? Awesome. So let’s focus on how we teach programming to the next generation. But tackling a few online tutorials in your 20s or later when you have no existing basis in the field, and/or learning a few remedial dumbed-down concepts in college? I fear that for the vast majority of people, that’s going to be much too little, far too late.

Of course there will always be exceptions. Joseph Conrad didn’t speak a word of English until his 20s, and he became one of the language’s great stylists. But most of us need to learn other languages when we’re young. I’m sorry to say that I think the same is true for programming.

Image credit: Jeff Keyzer, Flickr.

Five Great Things About Procrastination

Posted: 07 Apr 2012 06:00 AM PDT

Editor's note: James Altucher is an investor, programmer, author, and entrepreneur. He is Managing Director of Formula Capital and has written 6 books on investing. His latest books are I Was Blind But Now I See and FAQ ME. You can follow him on Twitter @jaltucher.

My wife was upset at me. "You spent all weekend responding to comments on TechCrunch," she said, "and it was the one weekend without the kids and you were either on your head phones or playing chess or responding to TechCrunch comments." And then she walked away. Upset. There would be no way to make it up to her. The weekend was over.

And I had big plans that weekend. My article was coming out 6am TechCrunch time on Saturday and I have two Kindle Singles (i.e. "small books") that I am putting out in the next few weeks. One: "How to Be President of the United States in Ten Easy Lessons". And two, "Scams". Plus I'm in the middle of starting three different businesses. Only one peripherally related to porn.

So what was I doing? Why was I procrastinating so much?

I started to Google, "How to avoid procrastination?" There are a thousand blogs about this. A lot of it involves cutting a vein if you do something bad. Or taking pills of some sort. Ritalin. Whatever.

I procrastinate every day. The most basic is: "return so-and-so's email". A simple thing. I could write back "Hi" and that would satisfy the project. But I don't do it. I go online. I play scrabble or chess. I look at my blog stats. I look at my Twitter feed. My Facebook feed. My blog comments. Should I respond? My emails (which come last. Emails are so 2008). Then I repeat. I remember that rap song from 1992 that I want to hear it again. What was it again. Oh yeah. MC 900 Foot Jesus, "The City Sleeps", I listen to it. Then I listen again. Then I repeat "the loop" (thanks Naval from Angellist for summoning up my entire process in 2 words).

(you know you want to do it)

But now I'm going to get right down to it.

FIVE THINGS THAT ARE GREAT ABOUT PROCRASTINATION

(Hold on, 2 more "interactions" on Twitter. Be right back. And now that you mention it, I think I want to listen to that MC 900 Foot Jesus Song again).

Ok, I'm back. I only had one more detour. Someone had tagged a post of mine on Facebook and I wanted to "Like" it. Check out the post: "The Day Stockpickr Was Going to Go Out of Business – A Story of Friendship".

Ok, where was I:

THE FIVE THINGS THAT ARE GREAT ABOUT PROCRASTINATION

A) Do stuff you like. Presumably you aren't vomiting on your bedsheets when you are procrastinating. Unless you are into that sort of thing. Presumably you are probably doing things you like a lot. Even if it's Twitter. I love Twitter. Tweeting. Retweeting. DM-ing. And if not that, online chess. I play about 200 games a day, with a clock – 1 minute each side. It's mindless. But I get constant stimulation? Am I great? No!? Ok, play again. Yes!? Ok, play again to confirm it. On and on. Mental troubles. (Note: see therapist)

(One sec: the guy whose post I liked just IMed me a "thanks". When I should be the one thanking him. He liked one of my posts to post it on his facebook wall! Oops. "The City Sleeps" is over. Hit that weird looking replay button YouTube.)

B) Listen. Your procrastination is telling you something. Maybe the idea you were working on is bad. I started a software project once that I was going to make into a company. But I kept doing everything BUT the software project. Procrastination is your mind's way of saying: "That bad! This good!" and puts your body at work on something you enjoy. Listen to it. Ask, why am I really procrastinating. Maybe I'm not calling the client back because I simply don't like him.

Yes! It's true. If you DON'T LIKE someone then you might not want to do business with them. People have this BS line, "its not personal, its just business." No way! That's why we procrastinate often. Because business, or anything you do, is personal. You aren't a robot! You want to enjoy the things you do and be around people who uplift you and inspire you. And you procrastinate when your body and mind aretelliing you you don't like something.

C) Delegate. Your procrastination is telling you don't like doing something. Delegate. Howard Hughes would procrastinate all the time. He personally invented oil drill bits that are still used in the oil industry. He developed techniques in the movie industry that are still used. He broke aviation records and owned the first transcontinental airlines. The guy was the Steve Jobs of the 1930s.

Do you think he did the crap work all by himself. Like the accounting work when he was the largest electronics part supplier to the military during World War II. Of course not. He delegated. Often your procrastination is giving you a guided tour of the things you need to delegate (i.e. the things you are not doing while you are procrastinating).

D) Stop. Why did I procrastinate and not go to that meeting. Or I was ten minutes late to the meeting. Or I didn't confirm a TV appearance in time and they replaced me. This happened to me a few months ago. The John Stossel Show wanted me on. I LOVE John Stossel. Why did I never confirm that I'd go on the show when they asked me and then I ended up not going on.

Because ultimately I didn't want to go into the city at night (I live 80 miles north) and go on TV for 3 minutes and then have to go 80 miles back. That's a drag. That's about 200 minutes altogether of doing nothing for those 3 minutes of TV. I'd rather be reading, writing, IMing, playing chess, putting on my Superman outfit and saving lives, and all sorts of other things.

E) Brainstorm. This is the only thing I'm asking you here. When you feel an overwhelming urge to procrastinate. When you don't want to program something. Or you don't feel like writing a business plan. Or you don't want to go to a meeting, just brainstorm for a second: what are all the useful things you can be doing now instead of the boring thing you feel required to do. Maybe you're entire idea is bad. Your business is bad. Stand up and move to another room to begin the proess.

It's not impossible for you to have bad ideas. In fact, 99% of your ideas are bad. I once set up a dating service on top of Twitter. BAD IDEA. People want to be anonymous on a dating service. Not on twitter. I kept procrastinating on raising the money. Finally, the money I had raised, I returned, and I shut the whole thing down instead of wasting two years of my life before it would've failed anyway.

Instead, I keep a handy waiter's pad with me at all times. There's always things I need to brainstorm about (article ideas, business ideas, investing ideas, vlogging ideas, book ideas, SURPRISE! Ideas (everyone likes to be surprised). Often when I'm about to procrastinate, the on ediscipline I try to do is go off to another table and start listing things for a few minutes.

Here's what I've realized, after thousands of hours of procrastination before, during, after companies, work, friendships, marriages, etc.

Don't do what you don't want to do. Procrastination is great because it tells you what you want to do. It also tells you what is probably a bad idea, or something you should delegate.

Not only that, it probably tells you what everyone wants to do. Like, in between the last paragraph and this one I went to the website for Cosmopolitan Magazine (I know, you probably didn't think I was that sophisticated). I looked at a few articles like "How to Spot a D-Bag in 10 Seconds or Less". A D-Bag!!! Then I felt guilty so I switched to The Economist. First article: "The Yangon Spring". No thanks. After I'm done with this article I'm all about D-Bags (and yes, it will be hilariously funny when someone comments here, "I bet you saw just a picture of yourself in that article").

I use Procrastination every day to make my life better. I do the things I want to do . I figure out what I need to delegate. I brainstorm ideas, and I find clues buried in my subconscious about what my future will look like.

–

Addendum: Note that I procrastinated while writing this article. It was originally titled, "TEN THINGS…" But Five is good enough to make everyone's life better

Addendum 2: In the last few paragraphs I wrote down an idea for a Vlog I'm going to do for PBS involving my nudity, Cosmopolitan, and The Economist. I promise you will laugh. At my nudity.

Addendum 3: Out of the 1000s of likes and comments this article will receive, someone always comments, "Really TechCrunch? This article? What has happened to the good 'ol days." Feel free to write that comment. Then refer to the “How to spot a D-Bag in 10 seconds” article in Cosmo. Ditto for the Grammar-philes out there. Maybe there can be a business around D-Bag spotting. Like a Foursquare thing. Like, I'm in the vicinity of 5 people who have been identified as D-Bags. Time to escape.

I don't know. Think about it. While kayaking along the Yangon River.

Dave McClure On What’s Next For 500 Startups [TCTV]

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 07:17 PM PDT

Today was a pretty big day for 500 Startups, the Silicon Valley seed venture capital firm and startup accelerator founded by outspoken tech investment extraordinaire Dave McClure. The firm disclosed in a regulatory filing that it’s halfway finished raising a brand new $50 million round of funding, the second in its two-year history and a significant step up from the $29 million investment that it raised in its first round. 500 Startups also named four new partners — Paul Singh, Christen O’Brien, Bedy Yang, and George Kellerman — who will help select and manage the more than 100 investments that the firm makes each year.

So we were very happy to have McClure as a guest today on TechCrunch TV. Because of regulatory limitations on what companies can say while they’re in the process of raising funding, his hands were tied on lots of topics on the details of the new fund — but we were still able to get some great details from him on the future direction of 500 Startups and the venture funding world in general.

Watch the video above to hear McClure’s thoughts on what some people call his “spray and pray” funding strategy, how being a “hillbilly from West Virginia” originally informs his instincts as an investor, why 500 Startups is so keen on international investments, what sector he’s especially excited about right now, and lots more.

Here’s What A Facebook Response To A User Data Subpoena Looks Like

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 05:49 PM PDT

Last year, Facebook got a little more transparent explaining what kind of data it would provide to law enforcement officials when they made formal subpoenas for user profiles. Now, we can have a look at exactly what that Facebook account report looks like, perhaps for the first time.

The document comes by way of the newspaper the Boston Phoenix, which this week published a long feature on how digital sleuthing led to detectives tracking down Philip Markoff, a man accused of robbing two women and murdering a third, having initially made contact with them through Craigslist. (Markoff committed suicide before his case went to trial.)

The feature is worth reading in itself, but what’s equally interesting is that the Phoenix has taken the opportunity to also make public an extensive amount of evidence that was used in the case, covering things like CCTV footage, audio of police interviews… and all of Markoff’s Facebook data.

The Phoenix didn’t obtain that data directly from Facebook itself, but got it as part of the Boston Police Department’s public release of its investigation case file (the BPD had originally gotten the data by subpoena). Two things stand out here:

Facebook has passed on on a pretty comprehensive record of time spent on the social network. As you can see in the embedded document below, wall posts, messages, photos, contacts and a record of all of Markoff’s past activity are included.

Privacy is a very messy issue in social networking. The Facebook file contains much more than info on Markoff: it also intersects with a bunch of people who had nothing to do with this investigation. And the police, in this case, didn’t redact anything from that Facebook file when passing it on to the Phoenix. That also leads to questions about who, ultimately, is responsible for this information?

As the Phoenix writes, it redacted what the BPD did not, so that it could give more insight into what Facebook is providing to law enforcement:

In other case documents, the police have clearly redacted sensitive information. And while the police were evidently comfortable releasing Markoff’s unredacted Facebook subpoena, we weren’t. Markoff may be dead, but the very-much-alive friends in his friend list were not subpoenaed, and yet their full names and Facebook ID’s were part of the document. So we took the additional step of redacting as much identifying information as we could — knowing that any redaction we performed would be imperfect, but believing that there’s a strong argument for distributing this, not only for its value in illustrating the Markoff case, but as a rare window into the shadowy process by which Facebook deals with law enforcement.

There is another place where these documents may have some significance: Over in Ireland, the Data Protection Commissioner has made several recommendations to Facebook to make its privacy and data policies more user-friendly — recommendations that have wider significance because Ireland is where Facebook has its international headquarters.

One issue that the DPC has emphasized is how Facebook provides users with their data if they request it. This has been a contentious area, with at least one consumer rights group accusing Facebook of not being clear enough in its data reporting. This subpoenaed document from Boston could point the way for how user data might one day look when regular citizens request it from Facebook, too.

VC Giants, Thinking Smaller: Why Kleiner Perkins’ Aileen Lee Is Getting Into Seed Funding

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 05:39 PM PDT

As a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Aileen Lee has been a part of one of the most well-respected and established venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. KPCB, of course, is known for making big bets companies that often turn out to be the tech industry’s brightest stars: Facebook, Google, Amazon, Zynga, and Groupon are just a tiny sample of the companies that Kleiner Perkins has backed. But after 13 years with the firm, Aileen Lee is shifting her focus in a very interesting way — she’s starting a new venture fund focused on smaller, “seed-stage” investments.

In an interview with TechCrunch today, Lee said that many of the details of the fund are still being hashed out — so things like the fund’s name, how much total investment will be involved in it, who else may be involved, and so on are yet to be disclosed. But here is what we do know: While it will be a standalone fund separate from Kleiner Perkins, KPCB will be the “anchored” investor in the fund; Lee will be full time in the new fund but will continue to hold her title as a KPCB partner and work with her existing portfolio companies there (including Rent the Runway and One King’s Lane.) This is the first time that a Kleiner partner has ever left to start their own seed fund, so Lee is in uncharted territory of sorts.

Here are some of the reasons Lee says she is launching this new endeavor:

Bringing New Weight To Early-Stage Funding

The angel investment community has gotten bigger, stronger, and more organized than ever in recent years, while at the same time micro-VC funds have become increasingly relevant factors in the overall landscape. Meanwhile, the JOBS Act that was just signed into law this week will open the door for even more potential investors to enter the ecosystem. These are all positive things overall, but right now, Lee sees an opportunity to bring a new kind of gravity to the space. “Seed stage is an investment area that is really important for early stage startups,” Lee said. “It feels like there is a need for trusted, experienced people to work with and to guide startups at this level. Kleiner recognizes this too.”

Having A Unique Voice

It isn’t just the Kleiner Perkins pedigree that Lee brings to her new fund. She has served as a startup CEO herself (at Danoo, which is now RMG Networks.) Her resume also includes work at the corporate level in consumer products companies including Gap Inc., the North Face, and Odwalla. “There are not many people from top tier venture capital firms who are focused on the seed stage,” Lee said. “Having been a venture-backed CEO, and having an established background in working with consumer focused companies, I’ve built a strong network of entrepreneurs and people who can help startups.”

Also, obviously, she is a woman, which brings its own unique perspective. Lee says she is passionate about encouraging more gender diversity in the tech world. “I’m a huge believer in power of women on the web. I understand the role and importance of females in companies can make a big difference,” Lee said.

Joining A New Kind Of Community

Even though she’s just getting started, Lee says she has already found that the early-stage funding space has a friendly feel that’s all its own. “I’m already looking at companies to invest in and the seed investing community is very collaborative. Super early-stage companies have a village that form around them for support,” Lee said. “I’m excited to be part of this.”

Of course, this is just the first bit of news out of Lee’s new fund, so there will be much more to watch in the weeks and months ahead. It’s certainly an exciting time for seed funding in general, so it’ll be interesting to watch how she forges a path in the space.

Leena Rao contributed reporting to this article.

Randi Zuckerberg Defends Her Reality Show: Hey Silicon Valley, Stop Being Snobs

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 05:15 PM PDT

Randi Zuckerberg has ruffled some feathers this week with the announcement that she is co-producing “Silicon Valley,” a reality show set to air on Bravo that purports to be all about the San Francisco Bay Area tech scene. In an extensive post on her Facebook page today, Zuckerberg acknowledged the haters and pledged to stand up to them — “I’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge or back down from critique” — and defended her decision to bring the tech world to the small screen.

Since the brief “Silicon Valley” trailer seems heavy on partying, name-dropping and conspicuous consumption, some very cogent arguments have been made that it looks like an inaccurate portrayal of what really happens here — and at worst, it will give the larger world a negative impression of the tech industry at a crucial time in its development. But in her post today, Zuckerberg maintains that the show is meant to go deeper than it looks:

Given the current economic climate, I think it’s really positive that mainstream media is celebrating the entrepreneurial spirit and portraying people who pursue innovation and startups as being “aspirational” for the general public. Entrepreneurship has existed outside Silicon Valley for quite some time (yes, people start companies every day all over the world!) and inspiring more people to pursue an entrepreneurial American dream can only be a good thing.

An oft-heard criticism of “Silicon Valley” is that the seven-person cast is hardly filled with the industry’s typical bold-faced names — not a Dorsey or Morin to be found. In fact, most people I’ve talked to have no idea who the majority of the cast is. Pointedly, Zuckerberg suggests that snobbery is afoot in some of these complaints:

I respect that the people cast in this show are all trying to make something of themselves. Some are newcomers to Silicon Valley. Some were anonymous cogs within bigger companies who chose to leave and create their own path. While you may not know them yet and while they may not be involved with Pinterest, AirBnB, Dropbox, Square or one of the other hot companies of the moment, it certainly doesn’t make their journey any less authentic or worth following.

Snap.

And, despite the all-encompassing name of “Silicon Valley” (which, to be fair, is a working title) Zuckerberg also says that people shouldn’t expect this to be a totally accurate and complete picture of the industry at large:

Will we showcase every single painstaking detail of startup life? Of course not. This is reality TV, not a documentary. The show isn’t meant to represent all of Silicon Valley, but to authentically follow the lives of a few young people trying to blaze their own trails.

Of course, there is an element of self-promotion here too. Zuckerberg acknowledges that one reason she’s involved with the “Silicon Valley” reality show is the platform it can give to “R to Z,” the company she started last year after leaving Facebook.

Finally, as an entrepreneur building my own company, I welcome and value the opportunity to work with Bravo and reach the network's massive audience for the constellation of projects we’re developing at R to Z. Part of our mission is to make accessible and to humanize the increasingly important tech community for the average consumer who does not speak in 1s and 0s. We will do this by advisement on select media projects, like this Bravo show, but mostly through original and creative content production.

So, that should clear up all the drama surrounding this show, right? Probably not. But it is a very good effort at responding to the criticism and trying to diffuse it. And the real reality is, the tech industry is becoming sexier by the day — where the money goes, lots of attention usually follows. Whether we like it or not, it may just be time for everyone in tech to get ready for a close-up.

That Whole “Shoulder-Surfing Facebook Accounts At Job Interviews” Thing? It’s Probably Not Really Happening

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 03:49 PM PDT

I think the folk tale of employers asking to see a candidate’s Facebook account was apocryphal at best, but it seems like it’s even being debunked in HR circles. Andy Lester a blogger on high-tech career-hunting, has noted that the tale, which surfaced in an AP story a few weeks ago, has been picked up as an example of the horrible state of hiring in this country. Pundits have opined, ink has been spilled, and now interviewees are ready to go into future places of work full of righteous indignation, just waiting for the mention of Facebook. But for the most part it’s an urban legend.

First, most social media accounts are an open book in the first place. I suspect potential recruiters pop over to Google to look up potential hires and I expect the reverse is true. The idea that a recruiter is interested in seeing you drunk at a party is far-fetched (unless you’re working at a place that you probably wouldn’t want to work at anyway) and a healthy social media presence isn’t much of a hindrance anymore.

Lester writes:

Is it plausible that this practice is widespread, and getting moreso? Sure, it's plausible. Our privacy erodes every day, and millions of us do it through Facebook willingly. The story has the feel of truthiness. Doesn't it just seem like the thing that Big Business would do to us? We already piss in cups to prove that we're drug-free so that we can come in and shuffle paper.

Generally it feels like employers are in the cat-bird seat and can basically make us do anything they ask. I don’t think that’s true. Hiring is up and good folks in the tech sector are as sought-after as they were before the crash. Management candidates may have to pee into a cup in order to control cash at a company, but I doubt Facebook usage is a very good metric for hiring in any case.

Besides, shouldn’t you have two social media presences, one professional and one private? And why are you posting drunk pics of yourself in the first place? In many cases it’s a buyers market out there and job seekers, alongside the usual concerns with buying a new suit and printing out a resume, have to be well aware of the reach and impact of their online presence.

via News.Ycombinator.

Security Company Palo Alto Networks Files For $175 Million IPO

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 02:48 PM PDT

Palo Alto Networks, a security software company, has filed its S-1 for a public offering, aiming to raise as much as $175 million. The company was rumored to be in the process of filing earlier this year.

Founded by Nir Zuk, the company develops enterprise-grade firewalls for companies that give visibility and granular policy control of applications and content, through hardware and software technologies. Companies can gain visibility into all traffic and all applications, maintaining the security of internal data and applications. For example, the company’s firewall will scan for viruses, spyware, data leakage and other application vulnerabilities in realtime.

For the fiscal years 2009, 2010, and 2011, Palo Alto Networks saw revenues of $13.4 million, $48.8 million, and $118.6 million, respectively. Sales grew 265% in 2010 and 143% in 2011. For 2009, 2010, and 2011, the company saw losses of $19 million, $21.1 million, and $12.5 million, respectively. For the six month period ended January 31, 2012, Palo Alto saw net income of $4.5 million.

The company has 6,650 customers, including Qualcomm, and Cricket, in more than 80 countries. Palo Alto Networks says that 62% of its total revenue is from North America, 27% comes from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and 11% originates from Asia Pacific and Japan.

Palo Alto Networks has raised $65 million from Greylock, Sequoia, Globespan Capital Partners, JAFCO, Lehman Brothers, JAIC and Northgate Capital.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are the lead underwriters. Credit Suisse, Barclays, UBS and Raymond James are also serving as underwriters.

After A Bump From SXSW, Banjo Tries To Bolster Its Position As The All-In-One Location App

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 02:02 PM PDT

What’s a SXSW bump worth? To Redwood City’s Banjo, which pools check-ins and geotagged updates from friends across all the major social networks, it was worth 100,000 downloads during the interactive part of the conference. That brought the app to more than 900,000 users. Of those, a little more than a half-million users are active every month and iOS users still outnumber Android ones by two-to-one.

That’s not bad for an app that has grown pretty much organically since it came out nine months ago, and Banjo is showing an upward tick in users at least if you look at its footprint on Facebook. Social networking is a tougher category to acquire customers in at least compared to games, where developers usually have very cash rich businesses that can pay for marketing. For comparison, Path has said in the past that it has two million registered users, but it’s not clear how many of those are active. Banjo’s numbers almost certainly make it larger than every new social, local and mobile app that we profiled ahead of SXSW.

On the back of that momentum, Banjo has an update out that makes the app even more of a central hub for all location activity on other social networks like Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook. It adds Instagram to the other social networks that Banjo pulls check-ins and location-tagged status updates from. Our own Sarah Perez has called Banjo the “creepy/awesome cyber-stalking app“ that shows you who's nearby based on their Facebook and Foursquare check-ins and geotagged tweets.

Banjo now feeds all notifications all into one place and there’s a new slide-out navigation menu that’s similar to what Facebook introduced to its mobile apps a few months ago.

Banjo’s chief executive Damien Patton said the company was extra careful around not creating too much hype around SXSW. The issue is that the conference has gotten very crowded with product launches which mostly flame out afterward.

“We made a conscious decision not to have a big presence at SXSW,” Patton said. “They’re not our target market.”

He also says that like in earlier years, post-SXSW consolidation is coming soon. “I don’t have a crystal ball to know who will get acquired, but we’re really trying to focus on the mainstream user for now,” he said. Banjo is funded by BlueRun Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

On The Nokia Lumia 900 And How AT&T Is The Phone’s Only Downside

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 01:09 PM PDT

This is it. The stakes couldn’t be higher. The future of Windows ~~Mobile~~ Phone hinges on the success of the Nokia Lumia 900. The phone has a huge amount of hype. It’s priced right at $99 on-contract and it’s a drop-dead gorgeous device. Nokia’s latest marketing campaign directly targets Apple and Google. If any phone could rocket Windows Phone 7 to success it’s the Lumia 900. It’s just too bad Microsoft and Nokia tasked lowly AT&T of all carriers to launch this pivotal phone. And for whatever unknown reason, on Easter Sunday.

The Lumia 900 is arguably the hottest phone of the year so far. It debuted back at CES where it was called a larger Lumia 800, which is about right. The 900 shares the same design spec as the 800 but sports a larger 4.3-inch display and 4G LTE connectivity. But that’s not a bad thing. Much like the 800, the 900 is a looker with a very unique design and very bright screen. It’s proper fine flagship phone.

Previous Windows Phone 7 devices haven’t made a splash. I bet only true mobile geeks can even name another Windows Phone 7 device. And that’s the problem. So far, Microsoft, the makers, and the carriers have yet to fully commit to the platform. Microsoft might be pulling in more money from licensing patents related to Android than Windows Phone anyway.

Windows Phone 7 launched a year and a half ago. The early version lacked competitive features and it wasn’t until the last update that the platform started to feel mature. It’s completely fine now and could make many users happy with its straight-forward live homescreen approach. But this lag killed most of the buzz the platform had prior to launching in late 2010. The Lumia 900 launch could be the turning point. AT&T will make or break the phone and with that, make or break Windows Phone.

The Lumia 900 will only be available on AT&T in the states and hits stores this Sunday — because people are going to line up for a phone on Easter. Even still, there can’t be any iPhone-esque lines if no one knows the phone is coming. But where are the ads? The massive marketing campaign? The only advertisement I’ve seen is Nokia’s secretive Beta Phone campaign.

AT&T has a sour history with Windows Phone. The carrier sells three WinPhone devices but have so far been very slow to push out updates. The carrier simply skipped the last bug fix but will instead push out a major revision — but that’s not scheduled for weeks. AT&T also screwed early adopters back in 2011 by delaying similar, but much more vital updates.

But what’s a Windows Phone fan to do? Much like with the iPhone in the early years, if you want the device, AT&T is your only choice.

The wireless game is complicated and cut throat. AT&T probably cut Nokia a pretty check to get the exclusive rights to the Lumia 900. Whoever is in charge of the pricing did the phone right by pricing it at $100 rather than the industry-standard $200. But AT&T is the most hated wireless carrier in the states. The Lumia 900, and with that, Windows Phone, would have a better chance of success if it was on at least one other carrier.

The Lumia is a fine device. I have no problem labeling it one of the smartest buys on the market. I would still recommend the iPhone 4S over it to most buyers, but the Windows Phone offers a fantastic built-in feature set that could be perfect for first-time buyers or even overloaded iOS/Android owners. My only pause is AT&T and locking into a carrier that seemingly changes contract terms on the fly. Plus, their history with Windows Phone shows they do not take the platform seriously. It’s a shame, really. The only real downfall to the Lumia 900 is AT&T — that and the lack of 3rd party apps.

Gillmor Gang Live 04.06.12 (TCTV)

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 01:01 PM PDT

Gillmor Gang – Danny Sullivan, Kevin Marks, Robert Scoble, and Steve Gillmor. Recording has concluded.

Keen On… Laura Tyson

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 12:55 PM PDT

Andrew Keen interviews Laura Tyson, professor of economics at UC Berkeley.

Too Drunk To Drive, But Still Wanna Get Your Car Home? There’s An App For That

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 12:39 PM PDT

You know what I hate most about getting too drunk to drive home? The hangover. No, no, I’m kidding (well, sort of) – it’s having to go retrieve my car from wherever I left it the next day. Sometimes, it’s been towed. Other times, it’s been broken into (true story). That’s why I’m hopeful about the possibilities a new service called StearClear has in store. The startup, which is backed by $500,000 in founder-led and VC funding, has been up-and-running for just a month in parts of New Jersey. What StearClear offers, simply put, is a way to get you and your car home. Safely.

Oh god, please let this work.

According to co-founder Craig Sher, the idea for providing a designated driver service is hardly new. “I found 50 or 60 companies across the country,” he said. “But most of the companies that do designated driver services are mom-and-pop shops…and it’s a very difficult business to make money on. Most people who embark on a designated driver service do it from a community service point of view – they’re very focused on volunteer drivers.”

So the big idea with StearClear, then, is how do you make a service like this work to make it profitable for all involved? Their solution: local franchises.

Instead of launching this as their own service from scratch, StearClear takes on a lot of the cost that goes along with creating a business, while leaving the day-to-day to others. The franchises don’t have to process credit cards, handle paying employees or doing their tax reporting; they don’t have to hire HR staff to ensure compliance with U.S. employment law, or worry with insurance and liability protections. StearClear also handles vetting the drivers, handling background checks, criminal and sexual predator checks, driving record checks, and even drug tests.

But, says Sher, “our real magic is the software, and the fact that we have a real end-to-end solution.”

The software he’s referring to is a suite of three mobile applications: an iOS/Android app for end users (them being the drunks), one for the drive teams, and a third iPad app for franchise owners which lets them view a heatmap of their drivers’ cars in action, customer requests, and all the management reporting functions necessary to run the business.

The drive teams are a team of two people – one who drives the customer’s car, another who chases it in their own. Both are hired locally and paid as W-2 employees ($8/hour while waiting, $12/hour while working; plus, for the chaser, 55 cents per mile – the going federal rate). It’s not career-making money, of course. The “waiting” pay is barely above minimum wage. But the drive teams split tips, so there’s a chance to earn a bit more.

Drivers are assigned shifts to keep the busy times covered, but can also make themselves available at any other time, if they want to make extra cash. When customer requests come in, drivers “bid” for the pickup via their own app by saying when they can get there. The customer usually picks the closest driver, of course.

As for customers, the sign-up process is similar to that of black car service Uber: a credit card is kept on file so there’s no need to swipe cards or hand over cash at the end of the ride. Rates are $20/per pickup plus $2.50/mile. Premium members (aka regular drunks), can pay $5/month then get discounted rates of $15/pickup and $2.25/mile.

Sher says the pricing can either be around 5% more or less than local cab rides, depending on your area, but is on average 20-30% cheaper than a black car service.

Meanwhile, franchise owners pay $30,000 to buy a block of 70,000 people (around 6 to 12 zip codes’ worth) for their business. They then get access to the turnkey solution, and keep 80% of the revenue.

The business’s subsequent failure or success, then, is on them. Marketing, raising awareness, finding employees, managing schedules, everyday customer service, etc. – it’s all on them. In Sher’s view, this makes them stakeholders. Well, sure. But it also means that getting the company off the ground has been essentially handed off to a bunch of unknowns in whichever far-flung regions of the country where someone decides to take a risk. Anyone with $30K and a dream of keeping drunk drivers off the road can sign up. Some, like some of the mom-and-pop operations, will make it work. Others will not. And it will all reflect back on StearClear.

Sher believes that this can work, though. “It makes the franchisee profitable. Within their first six months, they’re making money. If they would have started from scratch…number one, they wouldn’t have a software solution, they’d have a phone number – all the things that make the business difficult to implement, we take care of.”

Build a platform, and they will come?

“None of these [mom-and-pops] have been able to scale, none of them have been able to make any money, and worse than that, none can offer a nationwide service,” he says. Now, maybe, they can.

The founders, Craig Sher, Ken Schwartz and Harjinder Sidhu, have technology backgrounds which involve their two previous firms – a consulting firm and software company – which did engineering projects for most of the big banks on Wall Street. Over the years, they accumulated the IP and staff needed to launch something like StearClear. Of the $500,000 in funding, only 20% is outside funding from Accelerant Capital Partners, the rest is from the founders themselves.

StearClear is live in parts of N.J. now during its first public test, a 3-month beta where the idea is put into action for the first time. Stay tuned.

TechCrunch Giveaway: Two Free Tickets To Disrupt NYC #TCDisrupt

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 12:00 PM PDT

Disrupt NYC is coming up quick and we are working like mad to make sure this Disrupt is as big as ever. So far, we have announced these amazing speakers and judges, who will all be joining us. Not only that, but Michael Arrington is back and will be with us this year, along with our very own columnist MG Siegler. We still have a ton more surprises up our sleeve that we will also announce as we get closer to the event.

For now though, who wants to come with us? We have two free tickets to give away, each being valued at around $1,800. These tickets will get you into all three days of Disrupt, as well as all three after parties (which are incredibly fun thanks to our amazing sponsors). Disrupt NYC is taking place on May 21st through the 23rd, following our super popular Hackathon which is from May 19th to the 20th. To enter for a chance at winning one of these free tickets, all you have to do is follow the steps below.

1) Become a fan of our TechCrunch Facebook Page:

2) Then do one of the following:

- Retweet this post (making sure to include the #TCDisrupt hashtag)
- Or leave us a comment below telling us why you want to come with us

The contest starts now and ends April 8th at 7:30pm PT.

Please only tweet the message once or you will be disqualified. We will choose two separate winners at random and contact them this weekend. Anyone in the world is eligible. Please note this giveaway is for tickets only and does not include airfare or hotel.

Etsy Wants to Give Female Programmers $5,000 to Attend Hacker School

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 11:56 AM PDT

Etsy, the popular marketplace for all things handmade, just announced that it will not just be hosting the 2012 session of Hacker School at its headquarters in New York, but that it will also offer ten $5,000 grants to women who would like to attend this year’s session but don’t have the financial means to do so. As Etsy’s VP of engineering Marc Hedlund notes, the idea here is to ensure that about 50% of the next Hacker School class of about 40 participants will be female.

Hacker School is one of the many recently launched programs that aim to teach budding programmers to become better hackers. It’s a three-month, full-time program based in New York. The application deadline for this year’s summer session is May 7 and the program will run from June 4 to August 25. Hacker School itself is a free program and those who get the Etsy grants “can spend the money on whatever expenses necessary to free you up for Hacker School, no questions asked.”

Hacker School co-founder Nick Bergson-Shilcock also notes that the female applicants will be judged on the same scale as men. “It frustrates us a little that we feel the need to say that,” writes Bergson-Shilcock, “and we think it underlines the sexism (intentional and not) that so pervades the programming world.”

Etsy’s Marc Hedlund acknowledges that “20 is a small number,” but that he himself has only hired about 20 female engineers in the past 17 years. He also notes that he would be more than happy to hire any of the female engineers from this next batch of participants, “but more importantly, we just want to see these women go on to get fun, creative, lucrative jobs in technology — and hopefully tell other women about the great experiences they've had.” At Etsy, a site that has given many female entrepreneurs a chance to start their own businesses, eleven women currently work in Engineering and Operations. That’s up from just three last September. Etsy has about 100 employees in Engineering and Operations.

Keen On… The Economist: How Innovation Can Solve The Planet’s Most Wicked Problems [TCTV]

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 11:37 AM PDT

Daniel Franklin is the Executive Editor of The Economist magazine and one of the sponsors of last week’s excellent Innovation event at UC Berkeley’s Haas School. He is also author of the new book, Megachange: The World in 2050 which imagines the major economic, scientific and political challenges and opportunities to come over the next 40 years. So how important is the Internet, I asked Franklin when we talked last week, in solving some of what he calls “the wicked problems” of the planet? And, I asked him, what can Silicon Valley learn from the rest of the world in terms of coming up with innovative technological solutions to the world’s most pressing problems?

This is the final interview in the series of conversations from the Innovation event. Check out my other interviews from the event including those with Stewart Brand, Clay Christensen, Don Tapscott and Vivek Wadhwa.

AT&T Will Unlock Your Off-Contract iPhone Starting On April 8

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 11:02 AM PDT

Ask (enough times) and ye shall receive. AT&T has kept the iPhone under lock and key since day one, but we’re hearing that a pretty dramatic policy shift will go into effect starting this Sunday. Once April 8 rolls around AT&T will unlock your iPhone should you so choose, at which point it’ll play nicely with a microSIM from any GSM carrier.

Of course, there are a few conditions you have to meet before AT&T will swoop in and unlock your iPhone. First and foremost, your device has to be completely out of contract and your account must be in good standing — that means no history of missed payments or disconnections. AT&T will also unlock your device if you’ve gotten sick of your contract and decided to shell out the early termination fee, or if you spent full price on it, rather than purchase it subsidized with a contract. Not bad AT&T, not bad at all.

Alright, fine, not everyone actually needs a globetrotting phone, isn’t it better to be safe than sorry? Just don’t expect every SIM card to grant you magical access to high speed data — T-Mobile USA’s pre-cut microSIMs will fit just fine for example, but you’ll be stuck cruising the web at EDGE speeds.

Long time AT&T customers may know that the company’s policy has been to unlock a user’s device after 90 days of continued service, but the iPhone has always been a special case. Then again, we’ve been hearing that Apple CEO Tim Cook has been getting more than his share of iPhone unlock requests lately (mostly because looping him in actually gets things done), so maybe Mr. Cook just didn’t feel like dealing with the masses any more.

[via Engadget]

Love Social Media? Chances Are You’re Also A Fan of Chipotle, Saab and Victoria’s Secret

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 10:41 AM PDT

According to a new report by Experian Hitwise, 91% of online adults now regularly use social media in some form or another. This makes social networking the top online activity in the U.S. today, with 15% of all U.S. Internet visits going to a social networking site. Experian’s report also found that Pinterest is now the third most popular social network in the U.S., right behind Facebook and Twitter. What’s more interesting than those rankings, though, is what the report tells us about social media’s most fervent users.

Experian, for example, found that people who use social media regularly are significantly more likely to fly on Virgin Atlantic than the average online adult. These social media users are also more likely to drive a Saab, own an iPhone, eat at Au Bon Pain, Chevy’s and Chipotle, and shop at Payless Shoe Source and Victoria’s Secret.

Interestingly, those adults who visit professional networking sites like LinkedIn more than the average Internet user actually prefer United Airlines (they are probably more interested in collecting frequent flyer miles and getting upgrades), Whole Foods and The Cheesecake Factory. Just like the average social media user, though, those who regularly frequent professional social networking sites are also more likely to own an iPhone than the average U.S. adult.

Next Generation Of E-Ink Kindle To Sport New Front-Lit Screen

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 10:40 AM PDT

Living in Seattle, you tend to find yourself in the company of tech people all the time. With Microsoft, Amazon, Adobe, Google, and a dozen other major companies established in the area, it’s never a surprise when you find out the guy next to you at the bar is working on Windows Phone 8 or Half-Life 3. This week, I was lucky enough to get a chance to see what Amazon has cooking for its next generation of e-readers. Their new offices and the mysterious Lab 126 are just down the street, after all, so I’m actually surprised it hasn’t happened before now.

Back in November, I speculated that the new Kindles and Nooks and what have yous might have glowing screens, the likes of which we’ve seen occasionally but were never fully implemented. It turns out Amazon was thinking the same thing, and actually bought a company that was, I am told, the world leader in light-guide technology. They’ve finally gotten it to the point where it’s ready to be released, and a new generation of glowing Kindles will be coming our way sometime this year.

Incidentally, that acquisition doesn’t appear to have ever been reported, so although it happened in late 2010, this is the first anyone has heard of it. The company, Oy Modilis, was founded in 1991 in Helsinki, and has a number of patents relating to this sort of thing. This one, for instance, seems to cover the type of lighting technology used in the new Kindle.

The device I saw was crudely camouflaged in a sort of cardboard enclosure, but the screen was clearly visible. With a tap, a slider popped up on the screen, and as it was dragged to the right, the screen lit up evenly with a rather cool light. In the dark, it was plainly noticeable as a glow, and in uneven light — say, shade or a shuttered room — the slight illumination made the screen much more readable. At full blast it was definitely projecting some light (technically speaking it was reflecting it), but it was still a soft glow and not the harsh flashlight of a backlit LCD.

I commented on the temperature of the light — it was that blue-white glow found in uncorrected white LEDs, not the warm light on off-white that most people associate with books by lamplight. But, of course, the e-ink screen is in fact grey and dark grey, not black on off-white, as paper is, so a cooler light may actually work better. At any rate, they are apparently sensitive to these issues and looking into it. I thought that the text looked better as well, but it’s possible that this was the result of improved font rendering and aliasing reduction, or perhaps something to do with the light. At any rate, it wasn’t any of the crazy new bistable displays we’ve been seeing at trade shows (alas).

As for the shape of the device, it was impossible to tell, wrapped as it was in its little cardboard box. But the size appears the same, and the whole point of purchasing the light-guide company was to get the team and their patents, which essentially laminate the light diffusion layer right onto the screen without adding much in the way of depth or interfering with the touch system. I was told the industrial design isn’t finished yet, but I ruled out things like ruggedness, waterproofing, or a flush-front screen — all things, by the way, I suggested they look into. It shouldn’t be any thicker, though it will have to accommodate the LED circuitry and presumably a larger battery.

The current crop of e-readers is, as I recently lamented, both troublingly homogenous and still not good enough for paper-lovers like myself. The new Kindle doesn’t look like it’s going to address all of my issues with this kind of device, but the improved display will definitely set it apart from its rivals. We’ll know for sure when it comes out later this year.

[note: the top image is a concept image from Flex Lighting, not a real device]

Philip Kaplan’s Social Network Fandalism Has Quietly Grown To 350K Musicians

Posted: 06 Apr 2012 10:22 AM PDT

If you’re wondering what Philip Kaplan, a.k.a. Pud, has been up to, wonder no longer: He’s working on a social network for musicians called Fandalism. The site went live at the end of January, and without any publicity or advertising, it has grown to more than 350,000 registered users.

You may remember Kaplan as the founder of the blog FuckedCompany and the ad network AdBrite. More recently, he co-founded social shopping startup Blippy, and when the product failed to take off (the other founders are working something new), he focused on smaller projects like newsletter-maker TinyLetter, which was acquired by MailChimp in August.

One thing you might notice: None of these projects seems particularly related to any others. And Fandalism continues that non-pattern. Kaplan says he has actually owned the URL for several years, at one point experimenting with using it as a “YouTube for songs.” He returned to the domain last year as a way to meet one of his own needs: He’s a musician (primarily a heavy metal drummer), and he wanted to connect with other musicians.

Right now, Kaplan says the main way for musicians to find other musicians online is through Craigslist. There’s also Indaba Music, which similarly promises to help musicians find each other, but it’s more focused on collaborating on specific projects. (The site describes itself as a “the music creation marketplace.”) Kaplan wanted to make something that was more social, and also fairly straightforward and simple.

When you create a profile on Fandalism, you enter basic information like where you’re located, the genres of music you play, and your influences. You can also answer questions about your musical history, such as “What was the first concert you went to?”, and share your work through photos, lyrics, and embedded YouTube videos and SoundCloud songs. Then, once your profile is set up, you can start following other members, posting comments on their profiles, giving “props” to their performances, and sending them private messages.

As an example, you can see Kaplan’s profile here.

Judging from the rapid, word-of-mouth user growth, it seems that other musicians also thought there was a need here. And it’s an international userbase — at one point during our demo, Kaplan started searching for musicians in random countries, and the only one that came up empty was Luxembourg. We even found someone in Kazakhstan.

The site was completely invite-only until earlier this week, when Kaplan opened it up a bit, allowing anyone to browse and search. However, you still need an invite from another member to create a profile and post — Kaplan says it’s a basic way to ensure that someone else is vouching for your talent as a musician, so he plans to keep membership invite-only for now. (You can also join as a non-musician, but you’ll need an invite for that, too.)

As for making money, Kaplan says he has some ideas, such as allowing instrument manufacturers to advertise on the site. However, he doesn’t sound committed to any particular model right now. Nor does he seem particularly interested in raising funding, though he doesn’t reject the idea outright, or in hiring any employees. Yep, Kaplan has reached hundreds of thousands of members with a solo project, and while that isn’t quite an Instagram-level user-to-employee ratio, he wouldn’t mind getting there someday.

“Being able to be one guy and have a site with potentially millions of users — you can only do that now,” Kaplan says. “I would like to have 10 million users and still be one person.”