Mark Pincus Blog

when will we have consumer companies that talk to their users? (rather than spam and ignore)

is there anyone who appreciates the daily interruption of the apple and msft software update notifiers? for all that msft does to 'protect' us from pop ups and insecure software, why is it that we cannot remove their core functions from our windows pcs? there's probably a smart programmer or hacker who can tell me how to disable these desktop viruses, but i have never figured out a way.

a daily reminder to check for new windows software or install apple's latest is about as appreciated as telemarketing calls to my cellphone. i wish someone at msft and apple would ever get a clue. why cant those companies be more like google? googlers actually read and respond to this blog and many others, correcting wrong views on their company and bringing real criticisms into their company. it's a shame that we've never seen a senior executive from either of those companies interact with a blog.

i look forward to the day when senior execs at consumer companies try to be more like craig, start calling themselves 'customer support reps' and actually responding to users personally instead of on bad canned videos and from a conf hall dias, with their meaningless crafted marketing blather.

it is surprising that the rest of the most consumer net execs are as absent as msft and apple. i guess that means there's still room for yet another generation that will be even more transparent and consumer facing.

if this era has been defined by 'dont be evil'...the next may be 'dont ignore your users'.

How I got engaged...

to eveyone that we have not told yet, alison faith gelb and i are engaged. and to everyone who wanted to know the story here is a detailed account. [to everyone who really couldnt care to hear, dont read further.]

After spending rosh hashana with ali's family, I hijacked her and flew to vegas instead of sf where she thought we were having a quiet dinner at jackson filmore.

Ali started seeing weird lights in the desert and realized it was vegas. She started yelling in the back. Dave and I shut the pilot doors.

I told ali we were going for a fun vegas night because the past wk was hard for her moving to sf. She didn't think we were getting engaged. She said her nails weren't done and since I didn't care she thought it was going to be mexico over her bday.

We checked into the wynn (where we had our first date weekend despite judy's warnings). The front desk lady nearly blew yelling out 'congratulations. Isn't this ur anniversary?'

We went to our fabulous phat fairway villa where she proceeded to lay down and get sick to the point I couldn't get her up. She felt flu-ish like she had three heads. I started getting nervous that the whole plan was going south.

Finally got her up and out at 9:50 to catch the last seating at alex, a beautiful french restaurant where we were seated in a banquette. the staff was all set to give her the ring with desert with a dramatic lifting of a covered plate.

It was tough keeping all this secret from ali, especially with the waiter giving me knowing looks. I secretly gave the ring to the hostess, telling ali I was asking for aspirins.

I had an amazing 6 course meal (hers and mine) and then realized she was too sick and passed out for me to propose. At one point Ali woke up to say 'I'm glad were not getting engaged tonight!'

I stopped the desert ring in its trax realizing I needed a different plan having the waiter sneak me the ring back with the check.

Luckily, the chocolate desert brought her back. We stopped in the vip salon for tea and fruits, and with her forming whole sentences I realized she could now coherently accept a proposal.

(Ali points out that I never actually proposed but that's a small detail.)

I pulled out the ring and showed it to her and said, 'I've wanted to give you this for a while. Its been burning a hole in my pocket.' Ali got excited and I believe I put it on her finger but she's not sure. Then I said, 'I've searched for you, I've worked for you, I've grown for you.'

Then ali said, 'you have to propose to me.' At which time another couple came by and were first to congratulate us.

With ali feeling much better, we decided to go gambling, well I gambled and at one point almost hit a hard six for an $11k payout but happily ended almost even.

we made it home by 2am so ali could get up for her 7am conference call.

Since it was too late to cal everyone, we decided to post a picture of her hand with the ring on my blog and facebook to quickly tell the world.

I know ali plans to talk with each of you but we wanted to give you the whole story right away.

And of course ali's phone died this morning so she's having to wait till this afternoon to start dialing everyone.

We're landing in sf this afternoon. Ali wants me to add that (of course) she wants the ring size double checked and really needs her nails done and we haven't eaten all day.

iMacs are an iWaste

for all the time we think we save using imacs for multi media we should also admit how much time we waste on this weaker platform. can anyone tell me why my laptop just turns itself off if i'm inactive for more than 10 minutes? and no it's not on the battery

Zinga at tableTo play video messages sent to email, QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime® Player. Note: During the download

comment from former freeloader about tom

i love getting these comments from former friends of dearly departed tom cole...

I knew Tom from when we shared an office at FreeLoader. Every now and then I do the same thing most people do and I look for info on people I know online. I've never been able to find anything on Tom no matter how hard I looked. I just wanted to send him an email or find out what he's been up to or something. I FINALLY found a search string that yelded a result . . . and this is what I found. Only a few days ago my wife and I were talking about Tom after watching some of our wedding video for our 10th anniversary. Tom was at our wedding and, just as he did every day, his presence made everything shine just that much brighter. I had so much fun with Tom for that short period I got to work with him. It was only six short months, but I feel priveledged that I got to spend it sharing an office with him five days a week. For everyone else you've had a year to deal with this. For me, it's all happening RIGHT NOW and it's bordering on the unbearable. Mark; I can't even BEGIN TO FATHOM what this has been like for you. I know how close you two were and by the looks things continued to be. You have my heartfelt sympathy. I'm having a lot of trouble seeing the screen right now through the tears so I'll just stop.

3 office spaces available in my new building - ready oct 1st

My new building on vermont street will be super cool and offer startup oriented features not found in sf buildings.

* open, modern kitchen with espresso and smoothie machines * climbing wall (we hope) * atrium with lounge and lunch tables * nintendo wii * dog friendly

There are 3 open spaces available ranging from 500 to 2200 sq feet.

If you want space email me at mark-at-tribe-dot-net. Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry from T-Mobile.

What happens at burning man...(forwarded by my friend gary)

i dont know who wrote this. reminds me of the supposed graduation speach by kurt vonnegut. anyway this does sum up the experience (as it feels right after the event).

Pay an escort of your preference to not bathe for five days, cover themselves in glitter, dust, and sunscreen, wear a skanky neon wig, dance naked, then say they have a lover back home at the end of the night.

Tear down your house. Put it in a truck.

Drive 10 hours in any direction. Put the house back together.

Invite everyone you meet to come over and party.

When they leave, follow them back to their homes, drink all their booze, and break things.

Stack all your fans in one corner of the living room.

Put on your most fabulous outfit.

Turn the fans on full blast.

Dump a vacuum cleaner bag in front of them.

Buy a new set of expensive camping gear.

Break it.

Lean back in a chair until that point where you're just about to fall over, but you catch yourself at the last moment. Hold that position for 9 hours.

Only use the toilet in a house that is at least 3 blocks away.

Drain all the water from the toilet.

Only flush it every 3 days.

Hide all the toilet paper.

Set your house thermostat so it's 50 degrees for the first hour of sleep and 100 degrees the rest of the night.

Before eating any food, drop it in a sandbox and lick a battery.

Mail $200 to the Reno casino of your choice.

Spend thousands of dollars and several months of your life building a deeply personal art work. Hide it in a funhouse on the edge of the city. Hire people to come by and alternate saying "I love it" and "this sucks balls".

Blow it up.

Set up a DJ system downwind of a three alarm fire.

Play a short loop of drum'n'bass until the embers are cold.

Make a list of all the things you'll do different next year.

Never look at it.

Have a 3 a.m. soul baring conversation with a drag nun in platforms, a crocodile and Bugs Bunny. Be unable to tell if you're hallucinating. Lust after Bugs Bunny.

Cut, burn, electrocute, bruise, and sunburn various parts of your body.

Forget how you did it. Don't go to a doctor.

"Downsize" last year's camp by adding two geodesic domes, a new sound system, art car, and 20 newbies.

Don't sleep for 5 days.

Take a wide variety of hallucinogenic/emotion altering drugs.

Pick a fight with your boyfriend/girlfriend.

Spend a whole year rummaging through thrift stores for the perfect, most outrageous costume.

Forget to pack it.

Shop at Wal-mart, Cost-Co, and Home Depot until your car is completely packed with stuff.

Tell everyone that you're going to a "Leave-No-Trace"

event. (I love this

one)

Empty your car into a dumpster.

Read "Dhalgren" by Samuel R. Delany.

Read "The City Not Long After" by Pat Murphy.

Cut off the bindings, throw all the pages up in the air, and shuffle them back together.

Reread "The City After Dhalgren" by Samuel Murphy.

Burn it. Read the ashes.

Listen to music you hate for 168 hours straight, or until you think you are going to scream. Scream.

Realize you'll love the music for the rest of your life.

Spend 5 months planning a "theme camp" like it's the invasion of Normandy.

Spend Monday-Wednesday building the camp.

Spend Thurs-Sunday nowhere near camp because you're sick of it or can't find it.

Walk around your neighborhood and knock on doors until someone offers you cocktails and dinner.

Bust your ass for a "community."

See all the attention get focused on the drama queen crybaby.

Get so drunk you can't recognize your own house.

Walk slowly around the block for 5 hours.

Tell your boss you aren't coming to work this week but he should "gift" you a paycheck anyway.

When he refuses accuse him of not loving the "community".

Search alleys until you find a couch so unbelievably tacky and nasty filthy that a state college frat house wouldn't want it.

Take a nap on the couch and sleep like you are king of the world.

Ask your most annoying neighbor to interrupt your fun several times a day with third hand gossip about every horrible thing that's happened in the last 24 hours. Have them wear khaki.

Go to a museum. Find one of Salvador Dali's more disturbing, but beautiful paintings. Climb inside it.

facebook games beget strange company...

this is from a user of our texas holdem game. sounds like the beginning of a bad joke but pretty amazing statement about how an online social game can enable new ways to connect...

Just like to add that FACEBOOK is awesome! I played in a room last night with a American soldier, an Iraqi civilian, and a Saudi civilian.  Very heartwrenching convo.  By the end, in a real poker room they would have shook hands. It was a very heated convo that ended well.  Who else but you can give me these experiences!!  Thanks a million!!  Hope you never stop!!

                                         Sincerely,

                                          Leeanne