paul

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- The future for startup funding is "getting more unpredictable."

That's what Y Combinator founder Paul Graham said today, theorizing that because there are so many more young companies getting off the ground these days, venture capitalists may well have a much harder time predicting winners than in the past.

It makes sense. Startups can get going today for as little as a few hundred thousand dollars, so there are many more of them. "But the funnel at the top is the same," Graham said during the Y Combinator Demo Day. "… Read more

Rep. Paul Ryan, the new Republican pick as vice presidential nominee, has not been a leader on technology topics and has a mixed tech voting record in this area.

This should be no surprise. If you're in the U.S. Congress, you're not likely to focus on technology unless you're a member of the relevant committees. Ryan isn't. Instead, he's the chairman of the House Budget committee and has spent years trying to get entitlements under control.

So far, though, Ryan's voting history indicates that he tends to align himself with the Republicans' party … Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Walking through gallery after gallery of classical European paintings, sculptures, and other antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum here, it's easy to get lost in the history and beauty of the often centuries-old art. Especially if you're toting today's latest mobile technology.

Home to some of the most celebrated European artwork in the world -- and one of the most visited museums in the United States -- the Getty has also become one of the museums most devoted to adopting technology aimed at enhancing guests' experience, as well as at using high-tech tools … Read more

Those of you eager to watch "Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview" can now rent it via iTunes for $3.99.

The 70-minute Q&A with Jobs was conducted by Robert X. Cringely[*] for his 1996 PBS documentary "Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires." Only ten minutes of the original conversation were used for the documentary. But Cringely was able to able to get the rest of it from director Paul Sen, who had made a VHS copy of it that he kept in his garage.

[*] Aka tech journalist Mark Stephens. Other tech … Read more

Tired of waiting for taxis or paying big bucks for a limo service? A mobile app dubbed SideCar may be just the ticket.

SideCar plays matchmaker between people who need a lift and community drivers willing to give them a ride. Passengers reward the driver with a voluntary and cashless payment after they reach their destination.

How does it work?

Registered users of the iOS or Android versions can fire up the SideCar Passenger app and set the locations where they'd like to be picked up and then dropped off. The app then displays a suggested donation, and a … Read more

Paul Vermeesch is my kind of geek. The longtime Lego tinkerer has captured nerd lightning in a bottle with an elaborate Lego diorama featuring "Star Wars" characters battling it out in a 3D version of M.C. Escher's famous "Relativity" print. Be still my beating heart!

The model presents pretty much the entire original "Star Wars" trilogy. You could easily spend hours staring at the staircases and reenacting the movie scenes in your mind with the help of Vermeesch's strategically placed Lego minifigures.

Vermeesch even thought through how the colors reflect the particular film scenes he chose. The delight is in the details. Oh look, there's Luke's detached hand, still clinging to his lightsaber. … Read more

Since most people listen to music on free earbuds, plastic computer speakers, or car audio systems, it's easy to understand why great-sounding new recordings are rare. Even so, exceptional ones sneak through from time to time, and when I have a stack of candidates, I cover the best new releases here.

"The Raconteurs: Live in Montreux 2008" (Blu-ray) The Raconteurs were formed in 2005 by Jack White of the White Stripes, but this show from 2008 has just been released. The band's ferocious performances sound great here in DTS Master Audio. I like the two Raconteurs … Read more

Having lots of money isn't a reason to spend it, especially if you're a startup that has yet to prove itself as a viable, sustainable business.

There have been a lot of early-stage startups raising monster rounds in recent months. Ark ($4.2 million seed), Viddy ($30 million), and Gumroad ($7 million) are just a few prominent examples.

The funding party may be over though, at least according to Paul Graham, a prominent investor and founder of Y Combinator.

"Jessica and I had dinner recently with a prominent investor," Graham said in a letter to Y … Read more

One of the most prominent people in Silicon Valley's startup world is warning that Facebook's disastrous IPO performance will lead to hard times for startups.

Paul Graham, the co-founder of the first and most influential startup incubator anywhere, sent an e-mail to his portfolio companies warning them that Facebook has made it a lot harder to raise money. Graham wrote that "the startups that really get hosed are going to be the ones that have easy money built into the structure of their company: the ones that raise a lot on easy terms, and are then led … Read more