Soundboy: Could VC 'value add' be quantified?

soundboy:

Every VC talks about ‘value add’. The unique ways in which they believe they can help you build your business, be a great partner, and increase the chance of your start-up being a success. These include their network, recruitment, strategic advice, operational experience etc.

I have observed…

So many folks in the venture capital business are sheep that just want to follow the herd. They are momentum investors purchasing highly illiquid investments. That is a recipe for disaster. Momentum investing works in highly liquid markets (sometimes). From what I can tell, it almost never works in private markets.

“Return and Ridicule” by Fred Wilson (via michaeldempsey)

Many of the sentiments of this post by Fred remind me of my Mad Ones post from last year.  You cannot succeed long-term as an investor if you are taking the safe route.  As Paul Graham said in one of his essays,

If we ever got to the point where 100% of the startups we funded were able to raise money after Demo Day, it would almost certainly mean we were being too conservative.

(via marksbirch)

avc.com

laughingsquid: WalkaboutNYC Tech Edition, A Citywide Open House for New York City-Based Tech Companies

laughingsquid:

WalkaboutNYC Tech Edition, A Citywide Open House for New York City-Based Tech Companies

The Internet of Things: Coming to a network near you - Network World

smarterplanet:

Share7
Internet of Things

Network When people talk about the Internet of Things (IoT), the most common examples are smart cars, IP-addressable washing machines and Internet-connected nanny cams.

But IoT is coming to the enterprise as well, and IT execs should already be thinking about the ways that IoT will shake up the corporate network.

[DEFINED: What is the Internet of Things?]

SLIDESHOW: 25 of the weirdest things in the ‘Internet of Things’]

“Products and services which were previously outside their domain will increasingly be under their jurisdiction,” says Daniel Castro, senior analyst with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a Washington-based research and educational institute.

So, what are these devices?

Castro says that companies increasingly will be operating in “smart buildings” with advanced HVAC systems that are connected to the rest of the corporate network.

Many utility companies will be deploying Web-connected smart meters at customers’ facilities to allow for remote monitoring.

Companies are tying their physical security to their network security, so that data from security cameras and authentication readers are coming under the purview of enterprise IT.

Retailers such as WalMart, Target and Best Buy already use RFID and other tracking technologies to manage supply chain logistics, says IDC’s Michael Fauscette. IoT is a natural next step.

Then there’s “operational technology,” where enterprise assets such as manufacturing equipment, fleet trucks, rail cars, even patient monitoring equipment in hospitals, become networked devices, says Hung LeHong, research vice president at Gartner.

joshbyard: Self-Powering Electronics: New Fabric Metamaterial Generates Electricity From Heat, Movement Thermoelectrics are not exactly new, but usually made of materials that are brittle, heavy, and expensive. Carroll’s fabric, on the other hand, is lightweight, feels like wool felt, and can be wrapped around surfaces or even sewn into clothing. While energy can’t be “created” this fabric can essentially pull electricity out if thin air, from heat and movement. The fabric Carroll’s group has can turn heat — from your body, the sun, anywhere — into usable electricity. And unlike anything ever before, it can simultaneously collect power from vibrations or movement — letting your smartphone case bounce on a carseat during a long drive could charge your phone. So could a shirt flapping in the wind. (via David Carroll On Thermoelectric Fabrics - Business Insider)

joshbyard:

Self-Powering Electronics: New Fabric Metamaterial Generates Electricity From Heat, Movement

Thermoelectrics are not exactly new, but usually made of materials that are brittle, heavy, and expensive. Carroll’s fabric, on the other hand, is lightweight, feels like wool felt, and can be wrapped around surfaces or even sewn into clothing.

While energy can’t be “created” this fabric can essentially pull electricity out if thin air, from heat and movement. The fabric Carroll’s group has can turn heat — from your body, the sun, anywhere — into usable electricity. And unlike anything ever before, it can simultaneously collect power from vibrations or movement — letting your smartphone case bounce on a carseat during a long drive could charge your phone. So could a shirt flapping in the wind.

(via David Carroll On Thermoelectric Fabrics - Business Insider)

Business Insider

http://don.na/invite/1zL

don.na

miketrap.com: "How To Write"

miketrap:

David Ogilvy was arguably the best business writer of all time. In 1982 he sent a memo to every member of his worldwide agency empire, a memo with the same title as this blog post.

Here’s what it said:

The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write…

futurescope: IBM creates liquid-based transistors that can process data like the human brain From VentureBeat: For decades, the transistor has been the building block of electronic devices, from computers to smartphones. It has seen little change, but a team of researchers at IBM has given the transistor a major makeover, and it may enable the company to build computers that function more like the way the human brain works. If it pans out, IBM could use the technology to build chips that are highly efficient and use much less electrical power. That could lead to a revolution in mobile devices, which today are bound by short battery lives and electrical inefficiency. The whole process is not unlike the charged electrical fluids sloshing around in our brains. If the brain can do it, an artificially crafted material might be able to do it too. [read more]

futurescope:

IBM creates liquid-based transistors that can process data like the human brain

From VentureBeat:

For decades, the transistor has been the building block of electronic devices, from computers to smartphones. It has seen little change, but a team of researchers at IBM has given the transistor a major makeover, and it may enable the company to build computers that function more like the way the human brain works. If it pans out, IBM could use the technology to build chips that are highly efficient and use much less electrical power. That could lead to a revolution in mobile devices, which today are bound by short battery lives and electrical inefficiency. The whole process is not unlike the charged electrical fluids sloshing around in our brains. If the brain can do it, an artificially crafted material might be able to do it too.

[read more]

futurescope

marcellomercado:

Manfred Mohr (1938, de): P-021/A & P-021/B, Scratch Code, 1969
Mohr: P-049/R & P-050/R, 1970

With this work phase (1969-72), a logical and automatic construction of pictures is 
introduced into Mohr's work. For the first time algorithms (rules with a beginning and 
an ending) are used to calculate the images. Individual algorithms are invented for 
each work from which all forms and structures are solely generated. The algorithms 
are built from imposed as well as from random selection principles which Mohr calls 
aesthetical-filters.
www.dam.org/mohr/artworks.htm

marcellomercado

bbglasses:

AIMING AT THE MOON WITH A ROBOT

Penn State University’s cross-discipline student team is in a global race to land and operate a robotic spacecraft on the Moon by 2015. The project is called Lunar Lion. In this photo, Team member Kara Morgan (Penn State aerospace engineering freshman) examines a 3-D printed model of Lunar Lion spacecraft. 

 

Learn about Penn State’s Lunar Lion, part of a huge space competition.

[Images credit Penn State News, Patrick Mansell. Licensing–Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative]


We will post thru-out the competition. 
See #Lunar Lion for more.

Jude Gomila: Manufacturing a Renaissance with 3D Printing

judegomila:

image


How it will change the world

3D printing has recently captured the imagination of Internet. With the promise of on-demand products and near-zero lead time, people dream of downloading and printing products in their bedrooms and not having to wait for them to arrive. There is…

jtotheizzoe: Mapping a Living Brain, Neuron by Neuron … HHMI scientists have mapped the activity of a zebrafish brain down to the individual neuron in real time! A zebrafish brain contains 100,000 times fewer neurons than our own, but techniques like this will make the Obama administration’s ambitious (and slightly controversial) human Brain Activity Map Project possible.  … This isn’t our first glance at what “fish thoughts” look like, but it’s definitely the most complete, and the most completely awesome. Check out more great coverage, plus complete videos of the blinking brain, at io9. I really want to know what this zebrafish was thinking about that made its whole brain light up. Maybe “Oh man, I’m gonna be so famous on the internet after this!!

jtotheizzoe:

Mapping a Living Brain, Neuron by Neuron

… HHMI scientists have mapped the activity of a zebrafish brain down to the individual neuron in real time! A zebrafish brain contains 100,000 times fewer neurons than our own, but techniques like this will make the Obama administration’s ambitious (and slightly controversial) human Brain Activity Map Project possible.

 …

This isn’t our first glance at what “fish thoughts” look like, but it’s definitely the most complete, and the most completely awesome. Check out more great coverage, plus complete videos of the blinking brain, at io9.

I really want to know what this zebrafish was thinking about that made its whole brain light up. Maybe “Oh man, I’m gonna be so famous on the internet after this!!

jtotheizzoe