Need startup funding? Look no further than, uh, Kalamazoo

Silicon Valley’s drying up Despite the bevy of great ideas out there, one area can apparently handle so many great ideas, and venture capital in Silicon Valley is starting to dry up. And we’re in the Internet era, remember. You can be innovative anywhere!
Toledo’s giving grants Fortunately for startups willing to move their entire business to the Midwest, municipal governments are offering to give significant financial help. But those purses close if they’re not willing to invest in the community.
Rust belt tax breaksYou can guess why cities in Ohio and Michigan are so aggressive about getting tech companies in their cities – two good reasons, in fact, GM and Chrysler. Which is why they want startups to stick around. No fly-by-nights. source

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California faces challenges unlike any other time in its history – a weak and faltering economy, massive job losses, and an exploding state budget deficit. I refuse to stand by and watch it fail.
Meg Whitman • One of Silicon Valley’s most prominent conservatives. Whitman plans to run for governor of California in 2010. On a side note, how weird would it be to go from the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to someone who made her money auctioning off Beanie Babies? • source

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Netbooks are popular Sure, lots of people could use the horsepower of a speedy laptop or a top-tier desktop computer (MacBook for lyfe), but many are choosing to go with cheap Netbooks instead. These computers are small, inexpensive, sometimes as low as $200, and often use open-source software such as Ubuntu. They can’t handle much more than surfing the Web and hitting up YouTube, but for many, that’s all they need.
It’s happened before Back in the 1990s, the players atop the tech heap included America Online and Sun Microsystems, both relegated to footnotes in today’s market. With netbooks and other disruptive technologies, the cycle could repeat itself: Current big players like Microsoft just announced huge layoffs, and CEO Steve Ballmer noted this fear when announcing the layoffs. “Our model is not for a quick rebound,” he said.
“Creative destruction”Joseph Schumpeter, an Austrian economist from the early 20th century, seems to have nailed the current workings of Silicon Valley with his writings on business cycles. Basically, companies rise to the top of the heap, only to be taken down by other companies with smarter, more svelte ideas. The rise and fall of companies leads to more innovation. And a pretty cool to term describe it. source

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Thieves ransack Apple gear Two of the iconic computer retailer’s computer outlets – both in Silicon Valley, by the way – recently got robbed. They nabbed approximately $10,000 worth of gear from one of them in just two minutes. We bet they took all the Mac Minis. Yeah. source

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27 May 2009 23:09