Fun Friday: Super Bowl Weekend

Comments (Archived):

1. Gisele’s Tommy Boy in a rout. Final score: 36-14

   1. wowand Madonna?

      1. M’donna kills and lip synchs into oblivion causing Sir Elton to reconsider girls v boys. Good time is had by all. Gisele and Tommy father twins promising to name them Eli and Peyton. Archie is not amused. Life goes on.

         1. that’s funny

         2. This may be Disqus Comment of the Week.

         3. Any predictions on Kelly Clarkson & her singing the National Anthem?

            1. The National Anthem is a very tough song to sing well.  She will hit a long ball w/ men on base.  Her dimples will enchant and she will win many new converts.

   2. Didn’t know who “Gisele” and “Tommy” were so looked them up:No, I can’t believe that those two invented sex either.  She:  Looks like maybe she was pretty when she was 17.  He:  At this point he should look to trade her in for a newer model.Still, for the game, Tommy looks too distracted.  Besides, if his team went 7-7 earlier this season, then I can’t take seriously that “something happened and they have got a winning attitude and are surging”.  When I played football, I never saw anything in the teams or players that looked like any such “something” could happen.  Instead, either the teams were good or they weren’t.  Usually weren’t.I know about bad football teams; I was part of one.  Never again:  I’d never want to be part of a team that would have me as a player.So, I have to expect that Tommy’s team will lose.When lose a big game, that’s because the other team scored, say, in maximum likelihood estimation, which is not very good, 4 plays of 7 points each for 28 points against the other team’s two plays of 7 points each and, as they struggle, two plays of 3 points each for 20.So, Patriots 28 to Giants 20.That and a dime is worth at most a 10 cent cup of coffee.I’ve already watched the ads.  Never watch the halftime shows.  Who is “Madonna”?  Maybe the stadium will get two feet of snow before the game, or during the game.Now for the main question, what to eat during the game?(1) Chips and sour cream dip?(2) Pizza?(3) Carry-out Moo Shu Pork?(4) Turkey sandwiches from the last of the Christmas turkey?(5) Memphis chopped pork picnic shoulder BBQ?(6) Catered Homard Á L’Américaine with Montrachet in Orrefors?(7) None of the above.  Instead, write software and save time, money, and calories. 

      1. Tommy Boy is focused like a laser. Gisele has had him on short rations. All that testosterone will be unleashed.The Giants will be disappointed by their child man man-child Eli who will be crying for his big brother before half time.Gisele is the key even if she is skinny. The chick is a killer and her Tommy will deliver the goods or he will continue on short rations.Tommy Boy 36-14.Beware the ptomaine Christmas turkey!

         1.  I agree.  I think the pats go up by two touchdowns in the second quarter and run away.I predict the Giants will have a game like they did against the Redskins.  Eli isn’t good playing from behind.It hurts me though as it should have been my team the Ravens playing the Giants.

         2. I thought that Tommy was with the Giants!  You can clearly see just how much I really care about the game! But with your analysis of Tom and his extra energy from his hunger from Gisele’s “short rations”, I’ll let my call, Patriots 28, Giants 20, stand.Besides, if Gisele is such a strong woman, then maybe Tom will be paying attention to the game while the other QB, instead, will watching the high kicks of the cheerleaders or just some of the better looking chicks in the stands!Then while the other QB is watching the chicks, the Pat defense will knock him into the nickel seats!

      2. 7!

         1. Your concern is that you suspect that for the food choices, some women would get stuck preparing that, would have to do the cleanup, and wouldn’t t be able to eat the food due to their need to keep looking as good as the game cheerleaders?   Naw:  The carryout or catered options would let the women have the day off!

            1. Options:1. Catered.  2. Carry-out.  3. StarveAt least if I am in charge of food.

            2. But, but, but so CRUEL!  HOW can you be SO cruel?  You KNOW that men are helpless in a kitchen!  Have you no sympathy, empathy, caring?  The men would likely suffer serious knife injuries just from mixing up dip for chips!   Have a tiny bit of heart! Save a poor, helpless, starving man!

            3. 4. EAT WHOEVER THERE?

            4. Adding another dimension to BYO…- posted via Engagio

            5. No.  It sounds more fun to do 7

      3. You do realize “Tommy’s” team is the Patriots and they didn’t go 7-7 earlier this season either?

         1. Right:  As inhttp://www.avc.com/a_vc/201…I just realized that!  

            1. Saw that comment after I sent it. Better late then never!

2. More people will watch NBC’s web livestream than watch pirated streams. Feds will shut down pirates …oh wait, they did that yesterday. So much for predictions and A/B testing legit streams versus illegal.

3. in a move i don’t quite understand, almost all the super bowl advertisers, including e*trade, have leaked their commercials early: http://mashable.com/2012/02…so, that experience has been killed. not to mention i, also, hate the patriots (or anyone not the bears for that matter). and, seriously, the giants and their up-until-the-last-minute awful season don’t deserve to win. and madonna’s show will certainly be G rated.  despite hosting a party, all of this adds up to me paying almost zero attention to the game. i’ll be by the chili bowl.

   1. They are on YouTube too,- just search Super Bowl Commercials 2012. It’s part of the hype. These commercials become conversational pieces.

      1. Where’s Dina?

      2. Oh, I agree they’re conversation pieces. My first job was writing Bud Light commercials. There just used to be an element of suspense, reveal… and THEN conversation, after the game. Now most of the punch lines are out before the comedy show even starts — and this is the first time this has ever happened. We’ll see if this helps or hurts the post-game conversation / YouTube hits. Either way, it’s an interesting experiment in gaming social buzz.Some opinions:http://www.nytimes.com/2012…http://www.nydailynews.com/…- posted via Engagio

   2. “chili bowl”: who is playing in that one?

      1. the mole rubbed braised short ribs (and the stock oozing from them) that i’m taking the day off to start preparing now. they’ll be joined on the field with a host of secret-weapon ingredients. the beans take the focus away from the star players, so they’ll be sitting this one out.the chili will battle my wings. while my chili is the veteran, i’ve been known to make the best version of a dish the first/experimental time around. we’ll see who wins.

         1. Sounds like a “super bowl” unto itself!

         2. yummy.

4. @fredwilson:disqus how come ‘am praying that none of our portfolio companies are running ads’ ?

   1. Because their burn rate would be unsustainable, and Fred would then have to go out and work for a living.

      1. one word: kozmo.com

         1. Kozmo – a good name for the family dog.

            1. Having bred dogs with names like “Uncle Ho,” “Gengis,” “Brassy,” and “Matrix,”  to name a few, I never once thought of Kozmo…

            2. How about fenris?

            3. My dad had a dog named Keiko, after the soy sauce.

            4. Carl, we’ll have to explain the inexplicable with this reassuring thought. Great minds don’t always think alike.

            5. Our dog is named Cosmo!After the seinfeld character.

         2. Hey I still have a Kozmo satchel somewhere.My friends wife is a lawyer – she turned out the lights on that one – last person standing as they would down.Sad – great service – terrible business.

         3. Some days I wish you would write a history of internet boom #1

            1. that can’t be done in a blog postmaybe in a blog series

            2. Well if you do it, know that at least you have one reader who would great enjoy it,.as the cliche goes “those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it”

         4. Godaddy was thought to be nuts when they ran their first superbowl ad years ago. It was a total “hail mary” move.It’s now pretty much accepted that those ads worked tremendously for them and allowed them to greatly build their business.What does this prove? If you run an ad (and you’re not a typical superbowl advertiser with a defined strategy and budget) and your ad gets you extra media mention (as gd’s did) that can certainly work out very well for your company. While in retrospect it appears brilliant, had it not worked well enough to gain that extra attention, it could have been an expensive mistake. It’s a gamble. You can’t depend on having an edgy or controversial enough commercial to have that type of viral effect. 

         5. Pepsi were widely lauded by the digirati for taking their Superbowl ad money and putting it into thei big social media project. But I saw a comment a while later where they more or less admitted that they should have stuck with the advertising.TV advertising works. The Superbowl is obviously massively expensive air-time but the problem with sites like Kozmo wasn’t that they bought Superbowl ads they couldn’t afford, it’s that their business models were ****ed/non-existent.

      2. hahahaha

   2. Here’s 1 reason & the only reason: $3.5 million for a 30 seconds spot.

      1. I know the pricing. The VW Star Wars spot last year earned millions more in awareness from its video online and everyone talking about the spot. They did studies showing how much more than $3.5 million they got in terms of worth for that one spot. That only happens with a truly superb spot though. And totally get the $ expense I was just wondering if there was any other reason.

      2. And? Just because something is expensive doesn’t mean it’s not worth it (I’m actually not saying it is or isn’t worth it, I don’t know enough about the US media market) but the price alone isn’t a reason not to take those slots.

5. Moved tohttp://www.avc.com/a_vc/201…

   1. I go for #6. ~1996 & with Langres. 

      1. Langres sounds good!  It seems they also have some cheese.  So, after the lobster have some of the cheese and a good Chambertin or some such from the Côte de Nuit!  I’ll just save on The Eternal Big Three — time, money, and calories!

6. An online definition of G-rated; 1. Appropriate for all ages, with no offensive content such as violence, drug use, profanity, or sex acts. 2. Sanitized or altered to remove offensive content.If this is the new Giants I want my Lawrence Taylor back.

7. Just curious – do you tend to back your prediction with a little wager?

   1. noi don’t like to gamble

      1. Of course a wag might note that you are, indeed, a professional gambler, a VC.Oui?

         1. That would go out to most in the finance worlds, I would think.Trading, IBanking etc…

         2. nopeinvesting is not gambling if you do it right

      2. Isn’t that what you do for a living?Have you ever read the book “The Great Game”?It is the history of Wall Street, great book.

         1. Gambling is when you place a wager and have no influence on the outcome. Investing is when you do. At least that’s how I see it.

            1. Nailed it.

            2. So when I buy stock….I’m gambling then. I don’t really influence anything by holding stock.Feels different than betting on a game though.

            3. I thought of that. I personally think so since I have no real say in the outcome, although technically I can force change as a shareholder.

            4. “I buy stock….I’m gambling then”When you buy stock you are totally gambling which is obvious. You are not working with complete information and the things that you don’t know about can totally change the outcome. I feel bad for (most) people that put money into the market. Especially now with interest rates being so low that people are forced to chase better returns. 

         2. “Isn’t that what you do for a living?”Well in a strict sense sure he takes “gambles”. But there is so much he can control to put the odds in his favor that simply are not present in sports betting or stock investing (without having inside information). The downside risk of his type of investing is defined (as it is with a sports bet). But the upside is much higher and it’s spread out over many bets (of course you could do that with sports betting) He is also not competing with other bettors (changing, what do they call it, “the line”?) The upside is he makes a multiple of his or his investors money. What he has to decide is “do I think engagio.com” is a viable company to angel invest in given whether a) I think the idea has potential b) the team c) what money do I stand to loose.  d) competition analysis e) etc.I suspect @fredwilson:disqus  may be doing that with quipol right now. (Fred, Max has written to me and he’s has been a great guy in our interactions so that’s a plus for the team btw. Max is very motivated to get it right and not just in this public forum. Same with disqus as I’ve said).  If you decide to invest in domains, real estate or a small business idea you may be gambling. For me, based upon what I know it’s still a gamble but very manageable. I also don’t gamble (casino, betting things like that) and never have. 

            1. Traders are gamblers. VCs, speculators.

            2. I guess it’s open to interpretation but I wouldn’t consider VC’s speculators because (at least by definition) speculation requires a higher degree of risk than a traditional investment.  And in general a VC or angels investment is capped and they have much more information and control over the investment.Speculators are typically sophisticated, risk-taking investors with expertise in the market(s) in which they are trading and will usually use highly leveraged investments such as futures and options. Speculators can and do loose their shirt (as do real estate speculators). Angels, VC etc. you don’t really hear about that.

            3. Maybe my sarcasm did not come through, I am well aware of what VC and PE do.I also believe that most of life is a gamble, and controlling the odds is the only way to succeed.

         3. hell noinvesting, if done right, is not anywhere close to gambling

            1. Next time I will put a smiley face by my comment. I was being sarcastic, no offense intended.

            2. ah, got it. sorry about that

      3. From a guy that invests money in companies and hopes that one in three is a home run…..

      4. Captain Renault: “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.”Emile: “Your winnings, sir.”

8. The Giants will prevail and handle the Pats and Brady once again.  31-17  Gints.Eli gets his second SB MVP.Although the defensive line should get in as a unit.

9. The Giants are a more complete team, so I’m going with them by 10.How did you decide between being a Jets fan and being a Giants fan? I’m relatively new to the city, so that whole dynamic — picking between teams from the same city/metro — is still foreign to me. (I’m from a city without a pro team.) I know the Giants used to play at Yankee stadium, and I believe the Jets used to play at Shea. So I can sort of understand picking teams for geographic reasons — assuming you grew up in that era or have family members who rooted for a certain team.As far as commercials, I’m hoping to see something from the tech industry along the lines of Google’s “Dear Sophie” ad and Microsoft’s Kinect ad from a few months ago. (I don’t have a link as I’m posting from my phone.)

   1. i like underdogsso i went with the mets and the jetsi may convert to the nets when they move to brooklynthe knicks are hard to root for

      1. Okay, so that begs the question: Cosmos or Red Bulls?

10. I have no horse in this race, but a colleague has £5 on the Patriots “because they’ll win”.On the subject of advertising, yesterday Gary Vaynerchuk posted this http://youtu.be/LZXVPiwsmVE about continuing the interaction beyond just seeing the ad. The next trend, he says will be the ad funnelling you to online resources.

11. Patriots over Giants – 35-24.And although you didn’t specifically ask, in terms of food during the game.For the last half dozen years or so, we’ve made food representative of the two cities competing.  So this year we’re getting a NY style pizza from a local place and I’ve ordered cannolis from Mike’s Pastry in the North End of Boston to be shipped here.  Might make a batch of Boston baked beans, too.This is why we’ve rooted for the Saints for the last few years.   Too many good things to serve at the party.

    1. we are doing buffalo chicken wings and ribs, both cooked at home by the gotham gal

12. The Super Bowl reminds me that it is only two weeks till pitchers and catchers report! We need a billy bean money ball approach to founding and investing in startups. Anyone have some novel covariates that you think would be good predictors?

    1. Yeah! Pitchers and catchers reporting!As for moneyball for start-ups… isn’t that what America Reis is pitching over at Lean Start-ups?

13. A quick plug for Shazam mobile who will be powering something like 1/3 of the Superbowl ads.  So I hope you all have the app installed on your phone and tablets!Can’t comment on a sport where they pass the ball forwards instead of backwards.

    1. You can pass the ball backwards in football too (though it’s usually called a lateral even if it’s a little backwards). Doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it can be fun to watch. 

       1. I do like American Football we do get the games over here now.  I’d watch the Superbowl but it’s just on too early Monday morning for me.

          1. Fox played an English Premier League game a few Sundays ago, before the NFL playoff games. I was going to watch it, but overslept. Enjoyed watching the World Cup games last time around.

             1. You were probably better off getting the sleep Dave.  English football is just plain boring (but then I’m Welsh and born with an oval ball in my hands, so I might be a little biased)The only time I watch soccer is World Cup and sometimes the Euro’s. I can’t stand the diving and referee abuse.

             2. The diving is annoying, so it was refreshing to see on ESPN recently a player get roughed up for real — I think it was Messi in the Spanish League playoffs. I do like the pace of the game — the constant replays in football and the scholastic debates about whether a receiver controlled the ball long enough after catching it to count as possession can seem tedious by comparison sometimes.They did broadcast the Rugby World Cup final here. France versus New Zealand, I think. Watched it but I don’t understand the rules, so was sort of clueless.

14. Prediction: The Swan SB house party puts a dent in Louisville small business productivity Monday.8th year. Quite a spectacle (if you can see through the fog machine)

    1. i can only imagine

15. For all the non US folks who don’t speak the super bowl language.. and are premier league followers,any predictions for United-Chelsea on Sunday? 🙂

    1. More importantly – Arsenal/Blackburn#languishingin7th 🙁

       1. I know.. I’m sad too.I really like Arsene Wenger. If only he wasn’t as stubborn.. But 4th is looking tough now with Spurs looking pretty strong. And I would definitely bet on Chelsea making it through in addition to City and United. Tough tough. Great season though. When you add Newcastle, a resurgent Sunderland and Everton in.. it’s a fantastic line up of teams.Especially when compared to the Spanish 2-liga..

       2. Wenger really needs to get over his philosophical distaste for spending money. Admittedly it doesn’t guarantee results (Carroll/Torres anyone?), but they need something different.

    2. no idea what you’re talking about but if it’s soccer I’ll predict 0-0

       1. 45 injured and 2 dead in the after-match melee.

          1. The Egypt incident was real sad! 🙁

             1. I know and I don’t really mean to make light of it. But it keeps happening at soccer matches… all the time!

             2. By all the time you presumably mean so infrequently that the fact that it happened makes world news? http://rt.com/news/oklahoma… 

             3. its not soccer – its football

             4. So I didn’t realize that what happened in Egypt was intentional. What I thought was a quasi-humorous response to a sport that has an image problem (at least here in the US) was not at all. I’ve actually been a soccer fan most of my life, have played and coached it. I apologize to anyone offended.

             5. image problem? you throw a ball and call it football – get out of the US for a change and see what “image problem” the “world champs of football” have. 

       2. Hehe. Yeah!I think it’ll be far from a 0-0. But never say never.. Happy Friday Andy.. I guess in your case. ‘TGIF’ doesn’t apply. It’s TGIM after all..

          1. 🙂

             1. 3-3one of the best games of football in a decade. gripping stuff.

    3. I’m a non-US folk and know absolute nothing about American football!But it seems all too obvious to me that if one team is made up of the real GIANTs they should have no problem over powering the other team?

       1. Hahaha

       2. that makes you and the other 4.5B then. dont worry – the world champs are crowned on sunday.

          1. Nice to see the football spirit Mark… 😀

    4. I predict no one is the US will be watching. 😉

       1. Ha. You grossly underestimate Manchester United’s pull. 😉

          1. They are probably the most popular EPL team in the US.

             1. liverpool – by a country mile

             2. LOL. 

       2. haha – its actually being broadcast on FOX here. 

          1. Sure enough.Don’t get me wrong, soccer is cool.I played soccer growing up and when I lived in Brazil, I was fully indoctrinated.

    5. I’m not a Surrey red, but I really can’t stand Chelsea, and all the stuff going on with Terry means that I really hope they get stuffed. But United have looked shaky (having to bring back a 36 year old isn’t a great sign). 1-1, maybe 21 Utd.

       1. I’m saddened by this sudden racism line to be honest. Terry. Then Suarez. One of the big reasons I despise spanish football. There’s way too much open racism. And I agree on having to bring back a 36 year old.The more worrying thing is that this 36 year old has been practically dictating games and making us look much better. When will we ever find a replacement?!

          1. Even if he didn’t say anything racist he’s been a nasty little man for years (parking his Bentley in a disabled space anyone?) The sooner he’s gone, the better

    6. this is the longest sub-thread in this comment streamand it is about your football, not ours!

       1. When you come to London, I’ll take you and GG for a football game.Then, it’ll becomes ‘our’ football. And when I come to NYC you can do the same..  haha.And.. of course, we’re taking over your bar. But, you know that by now.. 😀

          1. i like chelsea and arsenal. i’d love to see one of them in their home stadium.

             1. Be very happy to be your guide, Fred. Do let me know if you have some time on your trip and we’ll make it happen. 🙂

             2. when does the season run?

             3. Be on till the 2nd week of May. You guys are here around then, right?

             4. we arrive on may 15thwe may just miss it

             5. By 2 days! There will definitely be games till 13 May i.e. the sunday. If you do have an opportunity to get here by Sunday morning instead of Tuesday, we could still make it happens.It’s  quite an experience! 🙂 But I guess you have your reasons. If there’s flexibility though, again.. do let me know.

16. The game is going to be the main event, not the commercials. A lot of the commercials are getting leaked on the Internet early anyway.What changed for the Giants is that their whole d-line finally got healthy. I think the Giants are a better team now than they were last time they met the Pats in the Superbowl (better even than they were when they beat the Pats in this past regular season, since Bradshaw was hurt then, and I think Nicks didn’t play either). Not going to pick a score, because I don’t want to jinx them.Can’t say I hate the Pats though. I want them to lose, of course, because I’m a Giants fan, but I never got the Brady-hate. Every time I see him interviewed, he seems like a decent guy. And I saw Robert Kraft get interviewed in Indianapolis this week, and he seems like a decent guy too (said he was a Giants fan in the 60s).

    1. yes, the team that continues to improve during the season usually carries that momentum into the super bowl.

       1. This year has been similar to the last year the Giants won the Super Bowl in that they got hot late in the season and carried that through to the playoffs.Another interesting parallel is that in both cases, they played the best team in the regular season (the Pats, who went undefeated in 2007-2008 up until the Super Bowl, and the Packers this time) and lost a very close game — by the same score as it turns out: 38-35. I think playing the Pats closely in ‘the regular season in ’07and playing the Packers closely in ’11were big confidence boosts.

          1. Dave,The first thing the Packers should have done is lost one of their first three games; its kind of like buying a new car, just take it out and get your first fender bender over with and move on….Then, for a team to “rest” two weeks, a team that won the Super Bowl playing six games in a row, all away games really shows some sad decision making…

             1.  Heh. I think if it were up to the Giants coaches and players, they would rather have played the game last week.Your comment makes me think of something else though: I bet players such as Tuck had more in the tank during the Giant’s late run because they missed games injured earlier in the season. Maybe someday teams will try strategically benching key players early in the season (usually they don’t consider that unless they lock everything up before the end of the regular season).

    2. i am with you on Brady. huge respect.but i’m a Jet fan. i suspect you don’t like the Eagles and the Cowboys much

       1. You suspect correctly.

       2. BTW, can you imagine if the Giants meet the Jets in the Super Bowl next year — in the Meadowlands? That would be unreal.

17. Nothing is going to top the Volkswagen Star Wars themed ads.The Bark Side is absolutely fantastic.http://youtu.be/6ntDYjS0Y3w

    1. These are not the dogs you are looking for…

    2. That’s good but it will be hard to top last Year’s Star Wars/Volkswagon commercial with the kid:http://www.youtube.com/watc…How can he be so expressive behind that mask?

       1. @hdemott:disqus Sorry, not up to the ‘Herding Cats’ level.

       2. I actually prefer the Thor spoof version http://www.youtube.com/watc…

18. As a huge Ferris Bueller fan, I love the new CRV Ad… interesting that they are now releasing Superbowl ads prior to the game…Beuller? Bueller?http://www.youtube.com/watc…

    1. This is catty, but I watched the ad as a huge Bueller fan and kept thinking ‘what is wrong with Matthew’s face?’I am no expert. Anyone know what might be up there?Peels? Botox? Too much work?I know enough to know it not just bad makeup work…..

       1. He has looked that way for quite a while. He’s not a young man anymore. It might just be age, which is something we don’t see a lot of in Hollywood.

          1. I honestly thought he had been ill.Stretched, pasty, like the makeup on Data from Star Trek.

             1. REPLACED BY ANDROID.TECH NOT PERFECT YET.(SEE ALSO AL GORE, MITT ROMNEY)

             2. Am I off the #NOEATLIST for noticing?

             3. NOW ON DISINTEGRATE ON SIGHT BEFORE TELL EVERYONE LIST.

19. The Super Bowl ended for me once the Packers lost…Now, since everyone here is big on “on demand” entertainment, I figured if the NFL could broadcast the Super Bowl with the teams that each individual consumer wanted to watch play then that would truly be the holy grail of “on demand.”

    1. Yes!  The fans and players of poor teams deserve more, and those who won all the games this year need to pay their FAIR SHARE!  Everyone plays Feb 5!!! 

    2. That’s basically how the college football system works…there’s a bowl for just about every team to play in.I think the NFL works because of the tournament…it’s one of those cases where extremely limited supply helps explode demand and interest.

    3. the season ended for me when the Jets crumbled at the end of the season

20. They beat the Falcons (and cost me a couple of lunches in doing so — btw, ping me @daveinhackensack:disqus to collect!)…so I’m rooting for the Giants.Overall I think it should be a good game, and probably pretty close, so my prediction is 27-24 Giants….and what would a @falicon comment be without a little related, and shameless self-promotion thrown in?  Since we are talking sports, I figure it’s the perfect opp. to bring up a pet project I’ve been throwing together -> http://turfd.com (basically it’s meant to be “Techmeme for sports”)…super early in the project, but as a major sports geek, I think it’s already pretty cool. 🙂

    1. Consider this a ping! Lunch on the mainland or, if it’s more convenient for you, we could meet up in Manhattan one evening (after 7:30pm) next week or the week after. Email me a couple of slots that work for you.Good timing too, because I’ve got a big round of site & app changes coming up, and it would be cool to get your feedback on them. Going to have to play around with Turfd. Since you can’t help yourself from building new sites, how about an Argueabout.it for politics?

       1. Hey Dave, I messaged you a few days back by guessing your email address. The message didn’t bounce, but I think I guessed wrong. Anyhow, would you mind shooting me an email at max [at] quipol dot com, so I have your info? Thanks, man!

          1. Yeah, I didn’t get it. Will send you an email so you’ve got mine.

       2. Back in ’99 I owned a domain called ourfight.com that was supposed to be around that idea…but I never ended up building it (I actually have many more ideas I never build than the ones I do)…I also used to own the domain bar.ackoba.ma during the last election but never did anything with it either…I think basically comes down to the fact that as much as I try, I can’t get that interested in politics (to me it seems to always be about the lesser of evils than it is about the ‘best’ for the people — and that sucks).In a related thought though…I’ve been thinking about building super simple mobile app that lets you take two pictures and then send it out as a choice to your friends (a this or that kind of app)…for those situations where you have two choices and really want some friends help in picking between the two (in my vision of the app it would be somewhat like groupme, but specifically for picking between a pre set of options)…guess it’s not really all that related to argueabout.it but for some reason it reminded me of that idea that’s been floating around in my head lately ;-)I will email you off the board to set up a time…hopefully this time it will be at a place I can actually find! 😀

21. Since we’re talking about the NFL here, a quick anecdote.I had to drop something off to my sister yesterday, who had just gotten back from a trip to La Jolla for work. Not a sports fan. But she upgraded to first class on the ride home, because she dreaded flying coach again after the miserable ride out, and some tall guy sits next to her, puts on his headphones, and promptly falls asleep. My sister puts on her headphones and starts reading. Then, a little later, a man comes over to her with a rolled up shirt and asks if she wouldn’t mind asking her ‘husband’ to sign it. Turns out her seatmate was the Chargers QB Philip Rivers.  

    1. That’s a great story to tell! And he probably wasn’t asleep–just trying to hide after his 2011 performance. Sorry, had to.

    2. Unrelated to the post but relevant to the comment….Friend’s son was playing catch with one of the other dads in the neighborhood (San Diego). As the dad got out of the car he realized his son was playing catch with Philip Rivers. He didn’t know if it would be appropriate to boot his kid and play w/PR.

    3. Don’t tell me, he dropped the shirt.

       1. No, he waited for the big moment then threw it to the wrong guy

    4. “some tall guy”

       1. Her words, basically.Incidentally, my sister got a chance to meet Eli and a bunch of other Giant players and coaches a couple of months ago. She volunteers with the Make-A-Wish Foundation (she’s an RN — she was in La Jolla picking up bone marrow for Hackensack Medical Center), and one kid’s wish was to meet the Giants. She said the Giants were very gracious and generous with their time.

22. I’m going to my first superbowl party.I also have no idea how the game is played.  Anyone?

    1. BIG MEN IN ARMOR RUN AT OTHER MEN IN ARMOR, BATTLE TO SEIZE BALL, CARRY TO HOME.MAIN FLAW IS LACK OF SWORDS. #TRUEOFMOSTTHINGS

       1. <3 this response.  And yes, they definitely need swords.  I could at least follow that.

       2. You left out the bit:MEN ALL STOP. SHOW ADS. WHOLE TEAM CHANGES. MEN ALL STOP AGAIN. SHOW MORE ADS. CHANGE HALF TEAM AGAIN. STOP. ADS. CONTINENTS RISE, OCEANS SINK. MEN STOP AGAIN. TOUCHDOWN. ADS.

       3. Indeed, you also left out cheerleaders. How did you forget that??!

          1. BECAUSE GIRLS SHOULD HAVE SWORDS TOO.

             1. I noticed you thought so when I was peering carefully at a certain drawing. And who’s to say that some cheerleaders actually aren’t quite good with a katana?

             2. NEED TO HAVE ON FIELD, USE. 

       4. ha!

23. A little off topic but the Quipol service has a very big UI flaw. During a USV product session in January I learned that Pie Charts are simply the worst way to showcase data in a visual way. At first I tried to combat that and say that couldn’t be, but looking at these polls its so true. When things get close (example 48% vs 52%) its really hard to figure out which is more. Even if its 60/40 its hard. It requires the user to mouse over the chart, which is one more step. A simple bar chart can very easily show which vote has more in a single glance. Just a thought…

    1. Peter, Bar charts are a great way to display the data, and I’m considering using them in smaller iterations of Quipol, where a legible pie chart takes up too much space.

       1. BAR LOTS BETTER. USE INSTEAD.PIE ONLY POPULAR BECAUSE HUMANS LIKE CIRCLES. LIKE != USEFUL

       2. Hey Max anyway you can get a quipol so people can rate commercials? One where they are able to pick more than one choice?  A multi poll?

          1. Hey LE, not in time for the Super Bowl, but, once video capabilities are launched application-wide, you’ll be able to create a slew of Quipols that you can embed on one page to get feedback on different commercials. I know it’s not what you’re asking for, but it should be pretty cool and provide a similar effect. I’ll keep you posted, of course.

24. Pats 38, Giants 35.Entire game rides on Pats O line. I think they pull it off. I also think both quarterbacks play at an historically high level.Eli has had everything click into place – it happened in college for him, late in his career. Now it has happened for him in the pros. I think he is now unrattleable and would take him over his big brother in a big game.But Brady is the best there ever was and I think that the more exposure he gets to the Gmen front 4, the less it bothers him.I am hoping for the rare really good Super Bowl game.

    1. I actually think it’s been awhile since we’ve had a bad game.Several all-time classic finishes in recent years.I agree – it’s all about Pat’s O line.

25. Fred, they posted the E*TRADE Baby Commercial on their YouTube channel this AM for the Superbowl: http://www.youtube.com/etrade

    1. i’m going to wait for the game to watch the commercials but thanks for the link anwyay

       1. Fair enough! I’m most excited to see the VW Star Wars commercial… how they will top the Darth Vader parody is beyond me

26. 1st-AVC and your wisdom is excellent source for all things venture. Thank you.Pats D is among the best statistically in yards and yielding points through 3 quarters — 4th quarter is prevent time thus masquerading a decent/not great D appear even weaker.Giants have been in playoff mode for 5 games plus — week off probably hurt them more with momentum.  Patriots 31 Giants 17  (Aaron Hernandez MVP)Prop Bet — Coin Toss Heads or Tails.45 Super Bowl coin tosses: 23 Heads 22 Tails Hmmmm

27. I am a Jets/Mets fan and I don’t dislike other teams etc but I would be happy if the Patriots don’t win. My prediction is Giants win by 11 points. Does Mr.Wilson plan on buying us a beer if the Giants win? If so when and where :)…J.E.T.S jets jets jets…Well Ill be bar tending at my friends cafe for the super bowl.. enjoy…

28. Fred,Pats fan but I couldn’t agree more with your assessment. Would also add Pats D is very vulnerable to big plays and Eli is a big play maker. Eli maybe the most underrated player of all time, he makes receivers into pro bowl players.Go Pats. 

    1. Can Eli be the most overrated underrated player of all time? That’s my thought about him, a very good QB who gets lumped in with great QB’s all too often. 

       1. Eli is selling hot dogs in the upper deck if his old man is not Archie Manning.  And his brother Peyton.

          1. Agreed. Name recognition definitely helps him along – occasional sparks of brilliance does not make a brilliant QB.  

          2. They’re not on the field with him!!!You sure you’re from NJ??

             1. They have the same blood and I’m just goofing.I actually like the Manning’s very much.  For some real hot shot athletes, they have set a powerful personal example that any athlete could look up to.And if you live in the South, Archie Manning, is well, the Holy Ghost if not higher.

29. Much more fun poll would’ve been which QB’s wife is hotter, since we’re doing “yes” / “no” polls…The FBI started the fun weekend yesterday…speaking of Super Bowl.

30. “and am praying that none of our portfolio companies are running ads.”Boxee might actually be a good candidate if it were done right.

    1. It’s $3.5 million for the 30 seconds.

       1. What’s the cost of building a CE product that not enough people know about and even fewer know why they need it?Like all advertising, a super bowl ad is only expensive if it doesn’t pay out.

31. Giants. 27-23Pats will get at least 9 points off of drives stopped in field goal range. As for Madonna… well lets just say the halftime show keeps getting worse. Tom Petty was a great performance, that was it. We need Janet and JT to come back and save us.The E*TRADE baby probably topped himself with the commercial in the pen after riding the dog. I just want to see great beer commercials for bad beer. Here we go!

32. I’ve always wanted to point this out publicly and never have. And I can’t even take credit for the thought (its my wife’s, actually) but isn’t football a particularly dirty game? Not like dirty as in grime, although it is, but listen to the announcers with your “gutter mind” turned on. Makes me wonder if this was planned.

    1. “with your gutter mind turned on…”This jumped out at me as a great phrase…even though it sounds like a lyric from one of the songs my teenager listens to.

       1. Now you’ve got me thinking song lyrics.

33. Madonna will probably have a very well planned wardrobe malfunction.  Might be PG-13?  

    1. Have not been around for a bit and just noticed your site… very clever.

       1. Thanks Dave!  It’s really fun too.  🙂

    2. Wait — just saw @davewbaldwin:disqus ‘s comment.  Are you up? I want to shop there!

       1. @donnawhite:disqus DM me your email so you can start shopping!  

          1. Done! ka-ching ka-ching- posted via Engagio

34. Pats 28 – Giants 24I say that as a die-hard Eagles’ Fan. I can’t cheer for the Giants. Ever. Though give them credit for a nice run.

35. The Patriots outscored their opponents by 171 points this year.  The Giants were outscored by 7.  That is to say, the Giants did not even deserve to be in the playoffs based on their regular season performance.I’ll go with the large sample size and take the Patriots in a route. 37-14.

36. So which web technologies does NFL.com use in their website? They recently switched the entire NFL.com website over to Yahoo’s javascript library called YUI.You can learn more about it from this video presentation entitled “There is no off-season : NFL.com’s move to YUI”.http://www.youtube.com/watc… You can learn all about the web technologies that are used on the NFL.com’s website.

37. if the Gronk goes the pats win – i don’t care what offensive line they have – this guy is unstoppable, gets quick throws (no sacking) and massive yards after the catch. they had no answer for him in the regular season game and they have no answer for him now. 

38. I’m more worried about Sheffield Wednesday vs Yeovil – the glamour, the drama! We (SWFC) need to (re)secure our automatic-promotion place to get out of this rotten league and back (eventually) to the Premiership.Anyway, enjoy Super Bowl!

    1. it’s a long road back but i’m rooting for the Owls

       1. Another step closer…http://www.swfc.co.uk/page/…:-)

39. Giants 30 Pats 20.  Brady will be sacked 3 times and knocked down 6.  

    1. the giants will have to get to brady to win

40. @eliafreedman:disqus This gets interesting. And a situation that many of us (I bet) end up in when years after we leave a company as founder/employee/board member it becomes public. We have no influence or current knowledge. At the end its always feels like a gamble and somewhat arbitrary on how I decide to manage the equity.

41. Anyone from AVC.com going to be there in the stadium?

    1. I’ll be right outside of it, but I don’t have a ticket. Will you be there?Btw, congrats on the great news that Fred announced yesterday.

       1. Thanks!No, I will be on the TV. I heard tickets are still available … for $3,000. – posted via Engagio

          1. You heard right. Pretty incredible.

    2. No, but I’ll accept an invitation. Anyone?

42. I love the picture in the poll question:Eli: “Hi Mr. Brady, my name is Eli. You probably won’t remember but we’ve met a few times.”Brady: “Uh, hi Eli. What did you say your last name was?”Eli: “Manning, Eli Manning sir.”Brady: “Oh sure, I used to know another guy named Manning in the NFL. He had the same funny accent. We embarrassed him in the playoffs a few times. Good guy though.”Eli: “Yep, that’s my big brother Payton. He’s also a big fan.”Brady: “So where did you say we’ve met before?”Eli: “Well, we played you a few weeks ago in Foxboro – we won. We also beat you in the Super Bowl four years ago.”Brady: “Yeah, it’s not ringing a bell…”Eli: “No worries Mr. Brady, I’m just glad we had a chance to meet again.”Brady: “Yeah, me too. Are you sticking around for Sunday’s game?”Eli: “I sure am. I’ll be playing quarterback for the Giants. We really want to win another Super Bowl.”Brady: “Hmm…The Patriots, the team I play for, really likes kicking the other team’s ass. It’s important to us. Sorry Eli, but we just can’t be friends.”Eli: “Aw, shucks…”Brady: “It’s nothing personal kid. It’s just what we do. Anyway, gotta run. But tell your brother hello. Love the accent by the way.”(Eli walks away: “I’m gonna light that guy up on Sunday. Seriously, he’s dead meat. I’m the quarterback of the New York Football Giants. Who’s that guy? The QB from the team from Boston? Talk about funny accents. Boston sucks! And no one, and I mean no one picks on my big brother and gets away with it…”)

    1. Do you write these things yourself?  I think you’ve done others.  Impressive.  You sure you’re in the right field?

       1. Haha.I’m not sure what came over me actually. The picture just made me laugh.

    2. Life is all a play and we all play our parts.  Well done.Well played!

       1. Thanks JLM. 

    3. Better than anything they really say!!

       1. Yeah, always a bit guarded.They tend to open up after they’ve had the jersey ripped off their back. 

43. SHOULD INVENT INTERNET EQUIVALENT.BIG, AWESOME, INTERNATIONAL, ABOUT SOMETHING NET CARE ABOUT.MAYBE ANONYMOUS AND RIAA IN GLADATORIAL COMBAT.

    1. a real time game

44. My 11 y.o. old son has been asking me this question.  He’s a huge football fan and a pretty amazing player — watch for him one day.  Graham White.I’m betting (figuratively) on the Giants.  Not because I think they are a better team, but because hunger is hard to beat. And because I have more prospective clients in NYC than in Boston. 😉 The score? Close.I love football as a game but I am not a fan of any particular team, well, except for my son’s neighborhood league team and also our high school team that kicks butt.  Speaking of anecdotes, when my high schooler was on the JV team, the varsity team had the sons of Will Smith (WR), Joe Montana (QB) and Wayne Gretzky (QB) as players — Gretzky also played baseball which explains his signing on with the Cubs.  Hearing the names Montana and Gretzky called out over the same loudspeaker (wait, which sport is this?) caused me some cognitive dissonance until I got used to it.BTW, my son moved from football to Lacrosse to theatre.  Go figure.  But he’s a pretty good actor and I’m much less nervous than when he was a linebacker or a goalie — and I won’t tell you whose kids are in the theatre department!  Southern California, no place like it.

    1. i’m not sure i’d want to play on a team with those guys kids on it

       1. Not exactly sure why you say this, but can guess.I give the coaches on that team a lot of credit.  My son says that the “celebrity” players were treated no differently.  The school in general does a good job of that.  What I didn’t mention in the anecdote is that you hear the names of other players over the loudspeaker just as often as the more famous names relative to their positions, including the “scholarship” kids — Montana’s name came up as often as it did because he was the QB…and he was really good.  The team was (and still is) a nationally recognized championship team.

45. I think the tech story for Sunday will be the 2nd screen sites & apps, from commercials asking viewers to Shazam the audio (good luck doing this at a loud Super Bowl party ;-), which will launch a web site, to other social tv communities like GetGlue.  Twitter, of course, is the leading social tv platform right now, but it is interesting to see how specialized apps are emerging. 

46. “[I] am praying that none of our portfolio companies are running ads.”Ha! Fred, you’re hilarious! 🙂

47. The poll doesn’t show up unless I’m on the homepage…

    1. That’s weird, David. What browser are you running?

       1. Chrome. Mac OS X. Seems to be working now though. Odd.

          1. Good to hear!

48. It’s like the Iran-Iraq war, why can’t both lose?Love,Eagles Fan

49. Over on sickstadium.com I posted my Super Bowl prediction about the 2-screen ads that will run during the game. Enjoy. http://sickstadium.com/2012…

    1. i don’t have shazam on my phone (i use soundhound because it was free and shazam was not)so i won’t be able to try these “two screen ads”sounds like a neat experiment though

50. My prediction is that the vast majority of the rest of the world will, once again, look on and wonder how you can prefer this excuse to show TV ads to sports like football/soccer.I love the US, but generally find its preferred sports (bar basketball) an utter mystery.

    1. your football is the purest sport

       1. I’m not sure I’d use the word pure to describe anything about football! But it is definitely pretty basic – get the ball over the other team’s line! Rugby’s probably a bit purer in some respects, as not picking the ball up is, when you think about it, quite an unnatural thing to do.

          1. just a ball and two nets

             1. Indeed; a ball and a yard of grass as the great Brian Clough once said: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik…

51. I have no choice but to bet on the Patriots.  My older brother has been an obsessed fan since I was a kid — even now if my mom can’t get a hold of jeff and starts to get worried (he’s always in crazy places with crazy gov’t situations) i tell her to go the Patriot fan discussion boards and write:”Jeffrey, call me.  Love mom”ps. the only reason i started to watch is i thought Tony Eason was cute 🙂

52. The Giants run comes to an end.  Just ask Tim Tebow!

53. Got to root for Eli.  Boy from NOLA and Ole Miss.  Was at Taylor Grocery in Taylor, MS where he goes to eat catfish and they are closing for the game.Tough for me as a Chicagoan to root for any east coast team.

54. WOOOOO HOOOOOOO! GIANTS ARE SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONS!!!!!!

    1. yupthe poll was right

55. “….and am praying that none of our portfolio companies are running ads….”Ha ha!

56. Now that super bowl is over.  On to 2012/13: What happens when Gronkowski is actually healthy for the big game next year, the Pats use their two picks in the first round and two picks in the second round wisely, and also use their league leading cap space appropriately (the last two are a given right…given Belichick?).  Hopefully I am making the NY fans (inc. AVC) turn in their desk chairs.From a thinking man’s perspective: Despite the result, Belichick outcoached Coughlin in that game.  “4 more years (minimum)!!!” Brady’s career, not Obama.

57. Heh – sorry about that!I’ve got OCD for building things…if an idea strikes me, I like to throw a prototype together to flesh it out a bit and see how well it sticks and how interested I remain in the project after releasing a MVP (the best way to get an idea out of my head is to explore it until my questions are answered, and then I can make room for new ideas and questions).So it might seem like I have a lot of projects, but really I’ve only got 4 or 5 active personal projects at the moment (turfd.com, pu.ly, knowabout.it, and whoclicked.it)…and I have been actively killing the projects that no longer interested me or weren’t really going anywhere (conversationlist.com and the old version of pu.ly being two recently killed ones)…of course I’ve got about 50 other ideas I want to play with when I find time (and of course new ideas hit all the time).Building stuff is what I love to do 😉

58. Impressive work, Charlie!Shana, while that list pretty much covers it, this Wikipedia page will give you more detail if you’re interested. http://en.wikipedia.org/wik…

59. they throw it but call it football. go figure

60. I sort of get that

61. She tells me this as I’m getting ready to leave, “Oh, by the way, have you heard of a player named Philip Rivers?”. Coincidental, considering the whole history with Eli initially getting picked by the Chargers.

62. ONLY IF TARGET DEMOGRAPHIC WATCH GAME.

63. maybe Twitter and Zynga could justify it

64. You just need a clone, that’s all.

65. Umm, I should tell you I watched most of the last semi-final game with the 49er’s.  I was glued to wikipedia.  It didn’t help.

66. I’m hoping Code Academy helps do that for me…you all are still sticking with it right? A few more months and I’ll be able to pass around some of these ideas and work. 😉

67. There ya go!The year started off with a bang for me on both the work and the parenting fronts and so I have fallen behind on my lessons — definitely plan to catch up! But the nice surprise is that my 16 y.o. son who signed up with me has been doing his lessons and as a result intends to sign up for the Computer Science course offered by his high school next year. – posted via Engagio