Links for Monday, October 23, 2006

• CFO Search – A local (Seattle) startup is looking for a rock star CFO with a strong track record in that position or in the number two slot to the CFO, preferably with experience raising capital and taking a company public. If you meet these needs contact me and I will pass along some more information.
• Microsoft: Be Ready for Automatic Update Distribution of IE7 by November 1 – “To help you become more secure and up-to-date, we will distribute IE7 via Automatic Updates as a high-priority update. We will start very soon with those of you who are already running IE7 pre-releases and then move onto IE6 users after a few weeks. We will progressively roll out to all IE6 users over a few months, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see the update right away.“
• MSFT Extreme Makeover: What Ever Happened to Hardcore? – “Gone, seemingly, is the concept of being hardcore. Microsoft’s strategy now – as best as I can discern it – is to sit back and wait until someone else either proves out a lucrative new market, poses a competitive threat (real or imagined) to existing profit streams, garners (in MSFT’s mind at least) too much media attention, or simply pisses off Gates or Ballmer. Then, invariably way late to the party and often without any real plan for a successful and profitable market entry, the company plunges in.“
• Amazon’s Jeff Barr on future of shopping – “My job is to be the Web services evangelist… to communicate with developers all over the world, encourage them to look at Amazon’s collection of Web services, and encourage them to build great applications on top of those services. When I saw Second Life it really struck me as a developer platform. It was the place to go for folks … who think creatively, think about the future — I’ve just been really impressed so far.“
• WISDUMP: What WoW Can Teach Web 2.0 – “Maybe its not fair to compare an online game with static sites that don’t offer the interactivity of an online universe. But sit back and take a look at how great some of these sites could be if they implemented what WoW does just a bit more into their fold.“
• Skype + Podcast Recorder = SkypeCasters – “or the last few days I’ve been recording podcasts using Skype. As the call ends with a couple of clicks it is converted to mp3 and uploaded to a blog. This is a real bloggers solution providing podcasting in almost real-time without resorting to studios, or fancy gear.“