OK, so some of you may have already read this post, but A-list blogger (not a self imposed title I might add, but according to this post, he does fit the bill) Jason Calacanis has posted a blog post about how he wants to be linked to in return for a link back to you. If you do not know who he is, I am not sure where you have been living these days. Hailing from Brooklyn, he was the founder of the Silicon Alley Reporter, moved on to start Weblogs, and subsequently sold it to AOL (which is where our distant paths crossed, being that we both were in the Bankoff org.) then moved on to revamp Netscape and then quickly exited shortly thereafter for greener pastures.

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It has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but at what point does imitation go to far and become duplication? Is there a difference between the two? I believe there is. It is one thing to build a product that is strikingly similar to an existing product (imitation) but it is something entirely different when you build a product that is an exact carbon copy of an existing product (duplication).

If you are the first to market with a new product, obviously there is going to be an onslaught of very similar products to follow. For example, Digg launches and then come Reddit and Netscape (for awhile).You could even makethe arguement that Twitter has spawned a few imitation plays as well, notably Facebook expanding their status area to be more Twitter like. This is all fine and good because it is imitation. The number of “new” ideas is shrinking and shrinking and if you think you have a “new” idea, chances are there are several players out there already doing the same thing.

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It has been one of those days, my head is about to explode. I came across this pic, and it calmed my nerves and made me forget what was frustrating me for a minute or two.

Take a look at it for a few seconds, it is very trippy. This is not an animated gif, but you would swear that it is. I tried covering one eye and looking at it to see if that made a difference, but it did not. Just to be doubly sure, I covered the other eye, and still the same result, the image appears to be rippling. I am not sure how they did this, but nonetheless, it served it’s purpose for me, it took my mind off of things for a few minutes and now I feel much better!