My friend Robert Scoble insulted 70 startups saying that they all suck. I know him enough to think that Robert is more talking about their websites and was so apparently disappointed that he started saying that they all suck from his experience with their websites.Yes, there are many startups that suck. Regardless of your definition of "suck" Robert, you may have a little respect for the entrepreneurs behind them who took risks, invested their time and put their family at risk often investing their personal money in them. Launching a startup is tough road and reaching the launch is a significant milestone that does not diserve insults. You simply cannot say that and I would urge you to edit your post.

Why? Very simple. You have never launched a startup yourself, you think you know them because you cover them all day long but taking the risk yourself is a very different story. I have created several and I would have never writen what you wrote, only by respect. If you do not like Demo it's one thing, insulting 70 entrepreneurs is another one.
my comments about @scobleizer insulting 70 startupsI am talking about this http://scobleizer.com/2008/09/06/lets-cry-for-the-poor-fragmented-underreported-startups/

First I would like to say that I apologized in public for the only way you can really reach Michael being disclosed in Chris O'Brien's article What's next for TechCrunch's Michael Arrington. It is a secret that I could not refrain anymore to share. Here it is.
I apologize @techcrunch I had promised I would not share thischeck this when you have seen this video http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_10399680?nclick_check=1
TechCrunch is huge and no doubt TechCrunch50 will be an even bigger success this year than it was last year. Chris O'Brien is wondering what's next for Michael Arrington. I don't know but I want to take this opportunity to congratulate him and all his team for what TechCrunch has become. Huge. See you all at TechCrunch50.

I am right now 104kg or 229 pounds for 1m92 or 6ft29. This is fat. Could be worse but very far from my ideal weight around 88kg. I will not aim at my ideal weight but as a first step at 96kg which I had when I ran the two semi-marathons 3 years ago.

Social software challenge to lose weight, join us!
@philj has already challenged me that he will beat me and I do not think so:

1) I will report on Flickr on what I eat and I started very well today

2) my coach @ledretch will comment the food I get from my flickr stream

3) I run every single day (and have done so for two weeks already)

4) I do not drink any alcohol (including wine), no sugar, no dairies, no bread and avoiding any fat food

Let the challenge begin, anybody is welcome to join us!

update: here is a wiki to gather links and posts and follow progression and I suggest we all tag seesfit to follow the challenge (registered seesfit.com too)

I like to share my runs on Twitter and some of my friends reply often. This morning Mike Butcher said "Got any tips on getting in shape? You seem pretty good at it" so I thought I could share more and would love to hear how you get in shape. There are many geeks I know who care a lot about regular exercise, like Jyri who has shared many of my runs around the Golden Gate bridge, fidlr who runs too and tells me that "interval running" is called "wind sprints" in America or my colleague Cathy Brooks, Net who shared crazy runcasts like running on the Golden Gate bridge, Joi with his diets and various exercises and so many others. How do you do it? What tips can you share about getting in shape in general?

Here are some tips, very obvious ones of course.

1. start with friends. That is how I started in Paris, I joined an existing group of occasional runner friends there is nothing better than group motivation

2. start slowly even if you hate it, you will feel good fast, you can even start (or only) walk

3. do it regularly and do not aim at a performance, often is more important. I try at least 3 times a week

4. you are geeks, get gadgets to measure and share. I use a Garmin Forerunner 305 that posts to Google Earth and keeps track of your runs, I "collect" them around the world while some others prefer NikePlus I like it too but I need the GPS and the Heart rate monitor, more on this soon

5. change the type of exercise each time. Change the place to make it more interesting and change what to do. I alternate slow but long runs (over an hour) with fast paced "wind sprints" or interval training

6. practice interval training once a week they help pick up speed. If you only run at the same pace you will never progress.

7. feed your brain with audio podcasts as you run. I listen religiously to the BBC News, the Europe1 French daily news to warm up and then some tech music such as RLP Mix or ZeMiXX (just search in itunes) to keep the pace

8. if you feel like (or can only do) inside training on trademills the (paying but cheap) podcasts from itrain.com make the experience much less boring

9. eat well, I am not always the best at this but avoiding fat, bread, too much wine and sugars is a good idea, I am on it now... Ledretch has good advice on Seesmic. Honestly I am fighting with it daily as being french I love good food.

10. read blogs, books and the monthly press about running, it helped me a lot get tips and advice. I used to read running and the book "Courir" in France I have to find some in the US

11. learn why your max heart rate is and why it matters as well as other key parameters. Running seems easy but there is a lot you can learn to help your performance and preserve your health.

12. aim at a race, even if it is not for a huge performance, I followed a half-marathon training for a few weeks then ran two half-marathons, the 20km de Paris (would love to run them again but will be in SF) and the semi-marathon de Boulogne. I miss them the race ambiance is very cool and it pushes your limits. I ran at 13 km/h average for about 1.5 hour and I could not do it tomorrow without training. I would love to run a real marathon but I am far from being ready for that.

13. when you stop for a while, it gets difficult again, start slowly almost walking if need be and it will come back very fast

I am exactly at this point. I stopped running for a while and have recovered in about 4 weeks my breath and good feeling, now I have to pickup speed again. The most important for me is the feeling you get after each run, it feels good and helps not only your body but also your brain.

How do YOU get in shape? Would love your comments and replies to my video below.
How Do You Get In Shape?Thought like sharing a few tips, would love your feedback. Here is the associated post with all the links http://www.loiclemeur.com/english/2008/08/how-do-geeks-ge.html

In his good post about the top 15 ways to get your story on TCUK, Mike Butcher says he prefers exclusives as he "is just fighting his corner here". A classic in PR that has not changed with the Internet is "the exclusive". It consists on giving the news you are about to release only to one media (or blog, which is the same...). When I started my first business in 1996 I remember that we were giving one exclusive to print, one to a radio and one to a TV station when the news was really important.

If you are a blogger or a journalist, I am really interested in what of the below options you prefer. If you are a news source in your company please share your experience with this, would love to hear about it.

Here are the different ways to get a news out:

1) give an exclusive
Choose only one media that has good traction and give it to that media in advance, then give it to all others.

Pros:
The result is generally that you get much better coverage from the medium you chose

Cons:
you also get all the others pissed and they will only cover you if the news is big enough that they have to talk about it.

2) tell everybody at the same time

Pros:
Nobody is pissed because they all got it at the same time

Cons:
They all compete against each other so there is less (or no) value to the news as it is disclosed to everyone so you get less coverage (or only shitty coverage)

3) blog it or tweet it only

Pros:
Everybody gets it at the same time and people who follow you pay more attention

Cons:
There is a high chance that most authors do not read your blog so the news will remain on your blog and not have much traction, especially as they did not have any time to prepare/react to the news.

4) embargo the news (give it to selected sources hours before trusting they will not disclose it)

Pros
The sources you trust will have the time to prepare a longer post, do interviews, generally give more context if they write about it.

Cons
Any of these source could break it before or worse, give it to Valley Wag for their embargo breakers (it happened to me for our first round of funding announcement and I am pretty sure about who gave it to them)

5) make a press release using wires and have your PR agency contact journalists and bloggers to write about it

Pros
You may reach sources you generally do not reach

Cons
Becoming almost totally broken. All authors get so many of them and so many reminders from PR agencies (just as a blogger I get tons which are almost all lame) that they don't even see the news.

Would love your comments, thanks in advance here is the associated video:
5 Ways to Release News, whats yours?I would love your feedback on this here is the associated post I wrote about it: http://www.loiclemeur.com/english/2008/08/5-ways-to-get-y.html

I just repaired the email subscription box on the top right of the blog if you are interested getting it this way, it is a daily email of everything I write, once a day. It is spam free, I will never share your email with anybody and Feedburner powered.

I hate email overload too but there is some great content I like to get by email, like Jason Calacanis emails for example and many others. It may look old fashioned in this micro-blogging and RSS World, but if you would like to get this way just put your email in the box. Thanks for your interest.

Oamos is a search engine that a few german friends (thanks Tobias Hieb and Marco Ripanti) have pinged me about today. The principle is simple, you make a search and get a "movie" of stuff around your search online. What's cool is that it plays sounds and video audio as well without you doing anything. I found myself spending some time on it and playing around it while I thought it would not be interesting at first glance. Try search something, it is very addictive. Here is what a search on Seesmic looks like, without the sound.