I have spoken to a lot of people here in the valley who claimed that didn’t need scaling solutions early on. I have consistently said that it is important to think about scale from the beginning, not count on that it get solved down the line. Twitter is a nice concept but it is ultimately killing your earned traffic when your site has downtimes and unaccessible API:s. The downtimes due to bad architectural choices such as choosing Ruby on Rails (with known database scaling issues) have been too many and people are migrating over to a competitor Jaiku, which is more stable with less features though.
I cannot understand anyone who doesn’t think about scale for a business proposal from the beginning, especially when it comes to community/social media sites. Whoever claims to build the community without any scale in the backend from the beginning knows very little about the impact poor scale – for instance slow page loads, frequent downtimes – can have on your community. You might actually end up destroying your community totally.
Lesson learnt: Build for scale from the beginning or at least with scale in mind from the beginning and you will not have the headache. Both entreprenurs and venture capitalists should start to realize that.
Did I mention I think Twitter is over-hyped?!
- May 17, 2007
- By eriks
I am watching the NHL game between Anaheim Ducks and Detroit Red Wings. Rob Niedermayer together with Chris Pronger just hit Tomas Holmstrom together with their arms smashing his head against the board. Very low, very intentionally and very much disgraceful… (Robs brother Scott Niedermayer in the same manner crosschecked Peter “Foppa” Forsberg in the back into the board in the final in the 2004 World Championship.) Personally I hope this Niedermayer gets thrown out of the game for a long time. I certainly would like Chris Pronger to face the same faith. Intentionally blows/hits with the only intention of hurting a player should be “rewarded” with a permanent leave from the game. Ishockey is about playing, not hurting your oppponents.
Update: Tomas Holmstrom is back!
Update 2: Even better, now he assisted on another goal.
- May 16, 2007
- By eriks
Today Linda Skugge decided to quit blogging. She got tired of all the negative and offensive comments. I decided to write a reflection on trolls.
- May 6, 2007
- By eriks
… always get tougher when it is getting tough is the saying. I have thought about this recently and also saw “Remember the Titans” tonight. There are many great quotes in the film which I really think encapsulate leadership, team work and how to deal with “uphills”. The first one is very football oriented – “I don’t want them to gain another yard. You blitz all night!! If they cross the scrimmage… I’m gonna take every last one of you out! I want you to make sure… they remember… forever… the night the played the Titans?”. You stand your ground and never ever yield. So true, so true. You work as a team together always. One of the best reflections on leadership I’ve heard outside the forces is: “Attitude reflects leadership!”.
- May 6, 2007
- By eriks
… should definitely read the New York Times’s article from today. A friend sent me an article about a puck crazy town in the northern parts of Sweden. I have only been there once, when I was driving back with my oldest brother eating burgers, but just being there for such a short while I too felt the hockey religion there. What about the burger? Yes that too was great.
For you who have missed it you can find the article here – A Puck-Crazy Town in Sweden Churns Out N.H.L. Stars.
- May 3, 2007
- By eriks
Yet another example of problems with the current formulation of Web 2.0. Many sites have underestimated the community aspects and the loose publishing form. I do think something more intelligent is needed as a backend solution that currently to counteract the problems with the loose behavior yet providing the user with the best possible content.
I wrote a longer version on the changing media scene here.
- May 3, 2007
- By eriks
Yesterday I had a dinner with a BBC correspondent Imtiaz Ali in Pakistan and Afghanistan. A wonderful person with some very intriguing stories on the area. Just before he left he share a truly insightful comment: We should focus on the similarities between people, not the differences.
- April 26, 2007
- By eriks
This week has been an unusually intense ride. Yesterday was the first day it really slowed down for me to reflect on it. I have been booked between 8AM-11PM everyday even though the meetings have been amazing all the way through. Thursday’s visit of the US ambassadors in Sweden, Norway and Denmark was very intriguing and I had a lot of very interesting conversations.
Today, I even got the chance to relax with a book and enjoy an afternoon coffee on the roof.
- April 22, 2007
- By eriks
So cool. I just got back from the Sharks game in San Jose where Foppa visited with his Nashville in”The Sharks Tank” (or HP Pavillion which is the actual name). It wasn’t one of his greatest games, but he played as he usually does, nothing fancy but always clean, gets the puck through all the time and manage to really shine a few occasions. In the last period he got some free ice and it didn’t take more than a few seconds before he served one of his team mates on the blade free with the goalie. Unfortunately the teammate missed the goal. Damn.
On another occasion a Sharks player tried to get him out of balance lying on him in the Sharks defensive zone trying to get him out of balance. He more looked at the guy as “What are you doing? Are you gonna lie on top of me for long?”. It was actually quiet funny.
Nevertheless it was clear that people had a sincere respect for his abilities both the team on the ice and the people I met in the arena. I can only say one thing. It was so cool to see him live in a Stanley Cup playoff game. Amazing.
- April 17, 2007
- By eriks
