Friday, October 31, 2014

Boss And Goddess

When you have a job, you have a boss. When you have a startup, you have a goddess: the market.


Sunday, October 26, 2014

Prince Kofi Amoabeng On Entrepreneurship

People Freaking Out



Not me, I'd love this, but I can see how some, or more than some, people might freak out.

The windowless plane set for take-off in a decade
replacing heavy aircraft windows with uber-light smartscreen panels to cut fuel consumption and slash air fares ..... a windowless plane that nonetheless allows passengers to see what’s going on outside, as well as checking their email and surfing the net.

Global Quantum Internet



Who could have thought? Container ships carrying around the Internet.

Why Quantum "Clippers" Will Distribute Entanglement Across The Oceans
The best way to build a global quantum internet will use containerships to carry qubits across the oceans, say physicists.
a quantum version of the internet that will have the ability, among other things, to send information with perfect security ...... there is a very real possibility that the quantum Internet might only ever consist of isolated quantum islands on different continents. ..... it will be possible to send information at bandwidths measured in teraahertz ..... “Bandwidth in excess of one terahertz is feasible under realistic physical assumptions, exceeding even the fastest proposals for traditional repeater networks” .... diamond crystals in which one carbon atom has been replaced with a nitrogen atom. This creates an electron vacancy that can absorb a photon and store its quantum state ..... ocean-going quantum Clippers carrying the cargo necessary to enable a new kind of entanglement-based information economy.

Genetically Modified Crops

Not be discarded in knee jerk fashion. There has got to be a right way to gradually introduce them into the food chain.

China’s Growing Bets on GMOs

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Water: The Best Thing You Can Do To Your Face

A Tweet And Replies For Massive Entertainment

Fred Wilson
Fred Wilson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
People on the teams of Uber and the like might think it is infotainment. There is information in there. This is the most entertaining tweet I have seen in a long time! Don't tell me there is not a human angle to technology! This is the most I have ever replied to any tweet. Click here for the full show.





Security And Easy Sign In



I liked two step authentication when it came along. Google is at the center of my digital experience. Android is an easy choice for me. I might still get snooped upon for I use many services online. But if I can at least be sure my Google ID will not be compromised, that is a lot of peach of mind.

And now there is a physical key. That would make it even more secure. But I would not want more than one key. This three step authentication and the ability to Google sign in into a whole bunch of services would take care of a lot of security issues.

The Second Coming Of Sign In With Twitter

Thiel



Seven Takeaways from Marc Andreessen's Interview With Peter Thiel
The eBay acquisition of PayPal was famously drawn-out and, in fact, took five separate negotiations to finally complete. .... "In June 2002, there was this eBay convention in Anaheim. We managed to get a booth there even though they weren’t that friendly to us at the time, so we sent 30 people down to the convention. And we handed out all these PayPal T-shirts. They saw all their power sellers wearing PayPal T-shirts, and at that point, they decided to buy the company.” ......... how Musk crashed his uninsured million-dollar sportscar with Thiel in the passenger seat on the way to a venture capital meeting
http://a16z.com/2014/10/17/a16z-podcast-the-definite-optimism-of-peter-thiel/

Thiel is a big picture person. He has a stellar track record. And he paints in broad strokes.

Things, Stuff



The Sectors Where the Internet of Things Really Matters
The Internet of Things is emerging as the third wave in the development of the internet. While the fixed internet that grew up in the 1990s connected 1 billion users via PCs, and the mobile internet of the 2000s connected 2 billion users via smartphones (on its way to 6 billion), the IoT is expected to connect 28 billion “things” to the internet by 2020, ranging from wearable devices such as smartwatches to automobiles, appliances, and industrial equipment. ..... five key verticals where the IoT will be tested first: Connected Wearable Devices, Connected Cars, Connected Homes, Connected Cities, and the Industrial Internet........ Within the vast Industrials sector, the IoT represents a structural change akin to the industrial revolution.

Security Key

Security key: key to security?

A Physical Key to Your Google Account

Virtually Speaking

Mark Zuckerberg buying Oculus has laid news emphasis on virtual reality, hardly a new thing. The scale of the discussion has changed irreversibly.

Bringing Burning Man to the masses through virtual reality, now that's a thought.

Drones for a few hundred dollars. Virtual reality headgear for a few hundred dollars. "Don't underestimate the power of the common man!"



The Quest to Put More Reality in Virtual Reality
After the initial unfamiliarity wore off, chatting with Rosedale and Karpf in virtual space was much the same as it would have been in real space. ..... The impressive 3-D headset being developed by startup Oculus VR, acquired by Facebook in March for $2 billion, has spurred new work on virtual-reality hardware by startups and established companies such as Sony ...... hanging out in virtual space will become a new form of mass-market entertainment. ..... Second Life .. “We did our best and got to a million people and made half a billion dollars [in revenue] or something” ..... Rosedale still logs into Second Life from time to time (his avatar is younger and slimmer than he is, with a muscled torso). So do about 1 million other people each month, and Linden Lab remains profitable. But hanging out in a free-form virtual world didn’t become mainstream, as its founders had hoped. ........ people donning Oculus headsets to dip into quick social interactions or strange environments. ...... virtual worlds will open up a new era of human existence ..... the freedom to explore and experiment inside a virtual world generates a “social force,” creating positive interactions between people that are impossible in everyday life–much like the Burning Man festival he attends each year ...... When I met Rosedale in that virtual club, his avatar’s eyes sometimes darted wildly to the side because of glitches with the face-tracking technology. ...... popular enthusiasm about virtual worlds is surging again thanks to Oculus ...... Rift goggles, due by 2016 .. All are expected to retail for only hundreds of dollars. .... “Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures”