Good bye my silver-gloved friend

I was at Gwyneth Herbert’s CD launch (it’s amazing by the way - you should buy it now on www.gwynethherbert.com), when someone came up to me and said “Michael Jackson’s dead.” I was too shocked to believe it could be true. We both said, we’ll wait until it’s confirmed. It must be a cruel joke.

But it wasn’t.

It’s not the man now that I mourn for, but the boy who sang a love song to his frog. As a 6-year old music video addict, I watched countless MJ videos. I had a stylish shirt with that man and his silver glove. I wanted a flat cap when he dueted with McCartney. I even had a Thriller slide for my view finder.

I feel like I lost a friend. A touch of my childhood. Goodbye Micheal Jackson. I hope your duet with Presley is as good as I think it would be.

Be in the know with top money facts

Money fact: we all use some form of currency every day but how much do we know about its origins? I’ve compiled some interesting money facts that will take you from its humble bartering beginnings, all the way to eCommerce. Maybe you’ll learn something new along the way – I did!

Money Fact 1: One of the earliest forms of currency was the Shekel, first used around 3000 BC in Mesopotamia. It represented a mass of barley, so was both a unit of weight and a unit of currency.

Money Fact 2: Paper money was first used during the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD) in China and was known as ‘jiaozi’ (which is also the name of a Chinese dumpling!)

Money Fact 3: Money used to be a commodity that had worth of its own. Some commodities that have been used as money include silver, gold, salt, rice, shells, peppercorns, cigarettes, alcohol and candy.

Money Fact 4: Spanish dollars, or ‘Pieces of Eight,’ were considered the first ever world-wide currency as its use spread from Spanish territories to the rest of the world in the 17th and 18th century.

Money Fact 5: In 1996, the US dollar accounted for around two-thirds of the foreign exchange reserves around the world and has been considered the principal world currency since the mid-1900s.

Money Fact 6: By law, the Government has to replace any damaged bills or coins of their issue as long as you can prove which part has been destroyed or can reconstruct at least half of the actual note.

Money Fact 7: 95% of all bank notes printed each year are used to replace ones that are damaged or taken out of circulation.

Money Fact 8: World renowned cryptographer Dr. David Chaum developed the method for conducting untraceable electronic transactions. Using a blind signature protocol, banks and merchants would be assured of the validity of the transaction while users would feel safe knowing their information would be safe. Without him, there’d be no internet banking, or online shopping!

Many names, one me

Today I found out via my friend Becky that Ling is another word for the Heather plant. She has then asserted that means I should now be known as Ling. So I was curious about what other names could be related to mine. First off the girl’s name Heather he(a)-ther is pronounced HEH-ther. It is of Middle English origin. Flower name: an evergreen flowering plant that thrives on peaty barren lands, as in Scotland. Has an upper-class aura. Actress Heather Locklear. Heather has 2 variant forms: Heath and Hether.

Now there are three other names that also mean Heather that I didn’t know about. The girl’s name Hadley ha(d)-ley, also used as boy’s name Hadley, is pronounced HAD-lee. It is of Old English origin, and its meaning is “heather meadow”. Name of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife. Hadley has 8 variant forms: Hadlea, Hadleigh, Hadly, Hedlea, Hedleigh, Hedley, Hedlie and Hedly.

The girl’s name Erica e-ri-ca is pronounced AIR-a-ka. It is of Old Norse origin, and its meaning is “forever or alone, ruler”. Feminine form of Eric. Scandinavian name revived in the 19th century. The Latin word “erica” means “the heather plant”. Writer Erica Jong; singer Rickie Lee Jones; actresses Ricki Lake, Erika Christensen; singer Erykah Badu. Erica has 28 variant forms: Aerica, Aericka, Airica, Airicka, Airika, Arica, Arika, Enrica, Enrika, Eraca, Ericka, Erika, Erike, Erricka, Erikka, Eryca, Erycka, Eryka, Eyrica, Rickee, Ricki, Rickie, Ricky, Rikke, Rikki, Rikky, Sherica and Terica.

The girl’s name Brier b-rier is of French origin, and its meaning is “heather”. Uncommon botanical name. The English word also describes a wild rose with small, prickly thorns. Brier has 1 variant form: Briar.

Hmmm. Brier, Erica, Hadley…maybe those will be the names of my children. Or my cats. I’m vain that way.

Former PayPal employees form YouTube

In February 2005, three former PayPal employees got together to form a new start-up – YouTube. Using their own money and their PayPal connections, designer Chad Hurley (who created PayPal’s logo) and technicians Steve Chen and Jawed Karim put together a small team to develop an online video platform – the early version of the powerhouse we know today.

In a talk he gave at Startup2Startup in June 2008, Hurley explained how their idea for YouTube was influenced by their time at PayPal:

“At PayPal we were working on a payment solution and we were able to learn things there along the way: observe how people were taking the solution with them, taking a payment button, and were putting this payment button on their own websites or blogs or auctions…but that button also took them back to the PayPal experience…

We tried to do the same thing when we were working on creating a video solution, trying to give them a video solution they could take with them. We initially thought more people would use them for auctions to describe the products but we quickly found out they weren’t…so we made it a more generalised video solution for people.”

In November 2005, with only their product and 6 months of stats to present, the team set out to find investors for YouTube. They made the rounds on Sand Hill Road, a road in Menlo Park, California known for its concentration of venture capital companies. Luckily they met with Sequoia Capital employee Roelof Botha, another PayPal alumnus, who was the CFO of PayPal when the YouTube team worked there. As they thought they could trust another person from PayPal, they accepted the Sequoia investment of $3.5 million and YouTube was off and running.

After only a year, Google acquired YouTube for $1.6 billion and Chad Hurley and Steve Chen became the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer respectively. Karim, who took the position of adviser after co-founding the company, received a portion of the payout and has since launched his own venture fund.

I wrote to YouTube’s head office to find out more about the team’s early years at PayPal, but have yet to get a response. Because they met there and got start up help from a contact they made at PayPal, I think working there really shaped their future. As Hurley joked in an interview with Dave McClure of 500 Hats about being a “lowly designer” at PayPal, he said: “You have to have good ideas. And you have to make a product that’s easy for people to understand and use and relate to.”

LINKS:
See the full Chad Hurley Startup2Startup talk filmed by NewTeeVee
Interview with Chad Hurley by Dave McClure of 500 Hats and Startup2Startup

Night to dawn

As dawn hits, I feel suddenly awake. It barely feels like night has come before the night is gone. Tonight was a random night - I like randomness. It’s a gamble. Trekking halfway across London can result in hours of wasted time for little reward. Tonight could have ended that way. Left a house party of strangers to go to a Kareoke fundraiser piss up with licencing till 2. Got there to find it’s now closing at 1 and it’s 12:15.

As a pair totter off to a drug induced techo dance haze, I end up with a group of friends who got there as randomly as I have. I love old friends as much as I love other people’s families - their interactions facinate me. Maybe make me miss my own a little more but I love them none the less. It’s the inside jokes and quick fire banter. The ease of conversation. The quick looks that say everything. The worry when someone is millimetres off their normal selves.

I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again but if I do, I’ll be another privy to inside moments - tea shots, Bendana, the pendulum-free clock sold for a dime. Or at least I hope this night will infiltrate their langauge like it will do mine.