Saturday, September 28, 2013

Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

    • A few years back, President Barack Obama claimed that America was experiencing “structural issues with our economy.” It wasn’t simply that inflexible Republicans were standing in the way of prosperity but that “a lot of businesses” had become more efficient. “You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM,” he went on, “you don’t go to a bank teller, or you go to the airport and you’re using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate.”
    • A few years back, President Barack Obama claimed that America was experiencing “structural issues with our economy.” It wasn’t simply that inflexible Republicans were standing in the way of prosperity but that “a lot of businesses” had become more efficient. “You see it when you go to a bank and you use an ATM,” he went on, “you don’t go to a bank teller, or you go to the airport and you’re using a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate.”
    • “Productivity is at record levels, innovation has never been faster, and yet at the same time, we have a falling median income and we have fewer jobs. People are falling behind because technology is advancing so fast and our skills and organizations aren’t keeping up.”
    • Fast forward to 2013 and we are seeing history repeat itself with new financial innovation dropping regulatory barriers, lower costs, and driving much wider participation in a previously closed market. The club-like closed ecosystem of startup investing is about to be pried open, thanks to new rules from the Securities & Exchange Commission, which has approved many reforms as part of the Jump Start our Business Startups (JOBS) Act
    • During the day-trading revolution, the biggest beneficiary was Island/Datek Online, a day trading platform started by Joshua Levine and Jeffrey Citron. The analogy in the startup world is AngelList, a startup funding platform co-founded by Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

    • Dish Network Service, the satellite TV company, provides a typical example of the tablet and smartphone innovation we saw this year. Dish gave 15,000 field technicians Samsung Galaxy Note "phablets" on which they do all their work. Each device replaces three: a tablet PC, push-to-talk phone and in-vehicle GPS. The consumerization payoff comes from having a dramatically cheaper tech platform (several million dollars in savings the past year, the company says) and doing less training because the interface is familiar and easy to use.
    • All proper human interactions are win-win; that’s why the parties decide to engage in them. It’s not the Henry Fords and Steve Jobs who exploit people. It’s the Al Capones and Bernie Madoffs. Voluntary trade, without force or fraud, is the exchange of value for value, to mutual benefit. In trade, both parties gain.
    • It turns out that the 99% get far more benefit from the 1% than vice-versa
    • For a couple of reasons: it opens a door to new set of applications such as indoor maps and in-store marketing, it makes the internet of things a realty and it might kill NFC (near-field communications), the wireless technology most linked with mobile payments
    • Using Bluetooth Low Energy(BLE), iBeacon opens up a new whole dimension by creating a beacon around regions so your app can be alerted when users enter them. Beacons are a small wireless sensors placed inside any physical space that transmit data to your iPhone using Bluetooth Low Energy (also known as Bluetooth 4.0 and Bluetooth Smart)
    • Just like NFC, iBeacons even allow you to pay the bill using your smart phone. The best part? iBeacon can run for up to two years on a single coin battery and it comes with accelerometer, flash memory, a powerful ARM processor and Bluetooth connectivity
    • On the other hand, iBeacons are a little expensive compared to NFC chips, but iBeacons range is up to 50 meters. Not all phones have NFC chips, but almost all have Bluetooth capability.
    • Several months after calling for legislation to unlock cellphones, the White House filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday asking that all wireless carriers be required to unlock all mobile devices so that users can easily switch between carriers.
    • With so many competitors in such a relatively small but rapidly growing market, it is highly likely that price wars will soon start to ripple across the market. Rising competition means smaller margins, which will inevitably push some smaller competitors out of the market.
    • All of these factors point to one conclusion: Big tobacco has the ability to lock out smaller competitors.
    • All in all, e-cigs may be one of the fastest-growing and most disruptive technologies to hit the market this year. With so much competition now hitting the market, however, it could be wise to stand back and only back the winners -- when they emerge
    • Student debt in the U.S. economy is taking the shape of a bubble
    • The U.S. government has effectively become the biggest creditor to students. It has gotten to a point where it is forcing the big banks to move away from issuing student debt
    • Soon, your heart and your body might be used to keep track of just about everything if new technology is able to unlock “pulse passwords”.

       

      Your heartbeat reveals more about you than your health, Bionym chief executive officer Karl Martin explained.

    • Our heartbeats are as unique to us as our fingerprints and now they are being used to replace passwords, key cards, and bank cards,
    • The new technology could pose considerable roadblocks for hackers because heartbeats cannot be replicated.
    • Because the constitutional protection of the Fifth Amendment, which guarantees that “no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself,” may not apply when it comes to biometric-based fingerprints (things that reflect who we are) as opposed to memory-based passwords and PINs (things we need to know and remember).
    • The privilege against self-incrimination is an important check on the government’s ability to collect evidence directly from a witness. The Supreme Court has made it clear that the Fifth Amendment broadly applies not only during a criminal prosecution, but also to any other proceeding “civil or criminal, formal or informal,” where answers might tend to incriminate us.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

    • regardless of whether you believe automation is good or bad it is inevitable.
    • The bigger point is that we’re on the cusp of an era of accelerated automation of our workforce
    • This automation will happen at a speed that will mean people won’t simply be able to retrain into another role as has happened in the past
    • This will be one of the biggest challenges to mankind as it needs to reshape mindsets developed for thousands of years.
    • Two common themes this year are the use of Web-based collaboration tools and mobile apps that take up arms against bloated software and workflow complexity
    • Virtualization and cloud computing go hand-in-hand, and virtualizing servers is just the tip of the iceberg. The trend to virtualize everything from servers to processing power to software offerings actually started years ago in the personal sector.
    • Cloud computing, which refers to companies using remote servers that can store data and allow users to access information from anywhere, takes three different evolutionary forms
    • The second form of cloud computing, which is a private cloud, is growing rapidly. A private cloud exists when a company wants added security with cloud computing, yet they still want their people to have access to their bigger files and bigger databases from any device anywhere. Since it’s private, it’s secure and the public does not have access to it. Companies of all sizes are now establishing private clouds.
    • In February 2011, the TV game show Jeopardy featured IBM’s supercomputer Watson against human contestants. Watson beat the humans at Jeopardy quite well because it knew what it was good at and it focused on those categories. With virtualized processing power, you’re basically getting a Watson on your phone. That means you and your employees can make informed decisions about many things, very quickly
    • The world now passing away consisted of business systems dominated by computer servers and personal computers. The new one subsumes these into cloud computing and devices like smartphones and tablets
    • One way to do that is to become the unifying agent for all the data that companies are spreading across their servers and cloud services.
    • 1. The internet of things
      A world where everyone and everything is connected. Sensors in everyday objects and devices will be capable of automatically transmitting data over high-speed networks. Those previously 'dumb' objects will then become 'smart' objects capable of automated machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.

      2. 3D printing
      This technology opens up amazing possibilities for individuals and businesses, with fully working parts able to be created at the touch of a button and for a fraction of the cost of doing it previously. Already 3D printers have been used to create everything from toys and parts for NASA's Mars explorer to medical implants.

      3. Graphene
      The development of the super strong and highly conductive graphene has huge implications for the traditionally silicon-dependant technology industry. Potential applications include flexible display screens, electric circuits, solar cells and use in medical, chemical and industrial processes.

      4. Connectivity
      Ubiquitous connectivity through a combination of superfast mobile broadband, fibre optic fixed line broadband and wi-fi will drive massive changes in consumer activity and also the way we live and work, especially with faster, lighter and smarter mobile devices.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Saturday, September 07, 2013

Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

    • I look at things happening and I say, you know what? Mitt was actually right when he talked about Russia, and he was actually right when he talked about how hard it was going to be to implement Obamacare, and he was actually right when he talked about the economy. I think there are a lot of everyday Americans who are now feeling the effects of what [Romney] said was going to happen, unfortunately

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.