Brajeshwar

Coda 2 comes built-in with Sass Mode

Brajeshwar — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:41:26 +0000

Sometime back in November last year, I was contacted by Steven Frank, Co-Founder of Panic. Panic wanted to officially support Sass with their upcoming new version of Coda, and wanted to start off from our Sass.Mode (maintained by me and Tom-Marius Olsen).

Well, why not. That was an awesome thing. Today, Panic released Coda 2, complete with Sass Mode built-in. It is being sold at 50% discount at the Mac App Store.

Business Intelligence with Retailigence

Robin Wilding — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:31:19 +0000

Peter Christianson’s resume, as he tells it, is like a who’s who of NASDAQ success stories – so when he lent his talents to new startup, Retailigence, people paid attention.

Retailigence and its founder, Jeremy Geiger, are leveraging Peter’s thorough portfolio of skills: business development, revenue growth, supply chain management, operations research, statistics, management consulting, business-process re-engineering and mathematics; skills Peter is using to help turn Retailigence into the next big thing. Retailigence is a hodge podge of all those skills, mashed together to create a data-driven, traffic-management platform that connects the 3 prongs of the retail sector: retailers, brands and developers – all without an app or search engine.

If you want to know just what that means, read our interview with Peter below:

Can you give me the quick, elevator pitch for Retailigence?

Retailigence is a hyper-local marketing platform that drives qualified foot traffic into local retail stores. Retailigence does this by distributing a brand or retailer’s product availability information via a network of location-based application partners, used by consumers who are close to finalizing their buying decision, as well as through thousands of publishers in the form of digital advertising, to drive high-value ‘action’ (in-store sales).

You have a three-pronged approach to connecting online retail participants—including retailers, brands and developers, what inspired this approach?

With the explosive growth of online shopping, it is important to realize that over 90% of all purchases are still completed in brick-and-mortar stores. If retailers want to maintain this balance, they need to have a way to leverage the ever-growing population of smart phone users who use their phones to research before purchasing. Unfortunately, the mobile app development community is extremely fragmented. Our platform approach makes it easy for retailers or brands to get immediate visibility in many applications at one time, and makes it easy for app developers to immediately get access to multiple retailers at one time. We feel our unique approach of bridging these three areas addresses this new opportunity to provide shoppers with hyper-local product information.

What advantages do users and businesses have by participating in Retailigence?

With Retailigence, retailers get more motivated shoppers into their stores at the time they’re most interested in purchasing. The in-store shopping experience is also changing; smart-phone customers are now demanding easy access to detailed information about the products in front of them. Retailigence helps make this type of information available to customers when an employee is not available to help them.

What is your educational and work background?

I have a successful track record in starting up new markets and building businesses at an accelerated pace. As Founder, Managing Director and Board Member of Real-Time Technology Asia-Pacific (subsidiary of RTT, a public company), in 3 ½ years, I grew revenue 1000% and built the organization from 0 to more than 50 employees. Earlier in my career, I held a variety of management positions in NASDAQ-listed CDC Software including VP of Business Development, General Manager and CEO for the Business Intelligence division.

My first experience in a start-up was with LA-based Supply Chain Management company Adexa, where I was involved in the founding of multiple new country operations. When I left Adexa, those regions accounted for 50% of Adexa’s global revenue. I started my career in Management Consulting, advising clients on Supply Chain Management, ERP software and business process re-engineering on behalf of PriceWaterhouse (now IBM Global Services) and KPMG.

I hold a Bachelor degree in Mathematics (with an emphasis on Operations Research, Computer Science and Statistics) and an Executive MBA from Sasin (associated with Kellogg School of Management).

What are your biggest challenges as an entrepreneur?

I’d say the biggest challenges are the 4 “P’s”: pacing, product, pivot and personnel. The early life of a startup is not a sprint, but a very fast-paced run. Too fast and you burn out, too slow and you miss the opportunity. You also need to have a good product which takes many iterations. You must be willing to pivot when necessary, and you have to be able to attract and motivate excellent personnel.

What are your plans, hopes and marketing ideas for the future of Retailigence?

Retailigence will become “the” platform powering the increasingly important online to offline (O2O) commerce market.

What are some of the mistakes and/or failures that you learned from while starting up?

In looking back over the life-span of Retailigence, I see several decisions that could be viewed as mistakes, but were good decisions at the time. As a fast-growing start-up in a “hot” space, we are continually being presented with offers for partnership and investment. What is more critical than making the right decision is to make a decision and act on it. If that decision turns out to need adjustment, then make the change and keep on going. Action will win over deliberation in the long haul.

What were and are the challenges that you face(d) starting up?

I faced the usual challenges: finding the right team, securing funding, and early on, fine-tuning the message so it was easily understood by retailers, application developers and end-users.

How have you personally changed since you started?

When we started, we were focused on the concept of Retailigence, which was a new concept at the time. These days, I need to spend much more attention on execution and metrics (both internal and for our customers).

What has been the biggest surprise been as an entrepreneur and business owner?

One of the biggest surprises has been the topic of international. Before starting Retailigence I started-up 12 different new country operations for 3 different software companies. International growth was expected and it required starting-up from first principles.

These days with the internet and with the visibility that Silicon Valley start-ups get, we are seeing huge demand from international markets, far before I would have planned such expansion. Also related to international, I learned early on, that many Silicon Valley venture capitalists are still wary of international markets. I’m seeing a very different perspective on international expansion then when I was in the trenches leading such efforts.

What development, event, or new understanding since you started has had the most impact on your original plans and how have your plans changed in response?

Retailigence had traditionally focused on serving brick & mortar retailers exclusively. When some of the biggest brand advertisers in the world started reaching out to embed “Point of Purchase” information in their advertising campaigns, we started to see an important value-add that we could provide to them too. The great thing is that this development has come back to benefit our retail customers too.

What sacrifices did you have to make in order to focus on your startup?

I had to make a decision to give-up my well-paid position in a fast-growing public company that had many perks including continuous international travel.

Which do you think is most important and why: the right market, the right product, or the right team?

Obviously all 3 are critical. But without a market, there is no need for the other two.

How did you lure your first customers?

Retailigence doesn’t lure customers, we engage them. Our first customers were forward-thinking people who saw the emerging possibilities resulting from the explosion of ecommerce, and understood the need to bridge the retail experience of yesterday to the retail experience of the future. Most retailers quickly see the value proposition of Retailigence. After developing their own app, they start to realize that there must be other things they can be doing in mobile marketing, especially as part of the explosion of 3rd party apps.

If your company tanked tomorrow, would the experience have been worth it?

Absolutely. I believe the journey is what enriches all of us, not just the end goal. Having started so many new subsidiary P&L divisions before, I know I can make a successful business. The experience of working with some of the world’s leading venture capitalists has been a fun and interesting new experience.

What made you first think that starting a company is right for you?

I’ve always had an internal entrepreneurial spirit, and with Retailigence, the market timing was just right. Even in the mid-90′s when I was a supply chain Consultant at KPMG, I envisioned the need for a solution to solve the “last mile” in supply chain management — connecting consumers with local retail stores.

Was there anyone/anything who inspired your managerial style and defined the culture of your company?

Every culture is different. The culture and management style I use in Japan or Australia or Singapore or Denmark or here in Silicon Valley is very different. I learn and adapt from what I see around me.

MissTravel – the Next Frontier of Digital Pimpery

Robin Wilding — Thu, 17 May 2012 04:53:15 +0000

If you pay a woman for sex, that’s illegal — it’s prostitution. If you film it it’s legal — it’s porn. If you put a soft lens on the camera — it’s art. What do you call a website that assists rich men in plying attractive young gold diggers with ‘free’ trips around the world? Digital pimpery? Perhaps. Brandon Wade calls it MissTravel.com.

Wade is the founder of SeekingArrangement.com, DateaMillionare.com and WhatsYourPrice.com, and now the like-minded MissTravel.com; all are websites dedicated to finding rich men for attractive young women, or vice versa. Or both. Think Couch Surfing for gold diggers. It is no strings attached apparently.

MissTravel.com has a simple premise; it connects wealthy, globe-trotting benefactors with young, attractive ladies with global ambitions. The site doesn’t pussy-foot around the topic either, as evident by its landing page’s opening motto: “who needs money, beautiful people travel free! Travel dating for generous and attractive people”.

Singapore-born Brandon Wade has stumbled upon the world’s first ‘travel dating’ site in a brilliant, although legally questionable, startup. This one is right inline with his other successful startups – SeekingArrangement.com, a sugar daddy-matching website; WhatsYourPrice.com, where men bid on dates with women; and the incredibly blatant, and obviously titled, SeekingMillionaire.com. All of these startups came after his graduation from MIT and a successful career as a management consultant at several Fortune 500 companies, including Microsoft, Booz Allen and GE. Now he’s serving a niche market of Fortune 500 executives I suppose.

MissTravel.com poses additional interesting questions beyond its issue with quasi-legal prostitution. Women on the site not only have travel paid for when accompanying “generous” members, “generous” members can also bequeath frequent flyer miles to “attractive” members in order to peak their interest.

“Besides matchmaking, MissTravel.com does a whole lot more. The website provides an incentive system that allows Generous members the ability to gift frequent flyer points to Attractive members (hence gifting them the gift of travel),” says the site. “Attractive members who accumulate enough frequent flyer points may redeem them for free airline tickets and hotel rooms, allowing them the opportunity to travel the world for free.”

Interestingly enough frequent flyer miles are no longer taxable income in the eyes of the IRS, and good thing too because try explaining that one! Frequent flyer miles are good for free airline tickets, hotel rooms and entertainment — all the things a hooker with a passport needs, as a bonus — they’re not only free but tax-free to boot.

How to choose the right mobile development framework

Shabda Raaj — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:01:33 +0000

Not so long ago you could only develop in Objective-C (for iOS) or in Java (For Android).

A lot has changed recently and many new mobile app development frameworks have come up. You have PhoneGap, Sencha, jQTouch, jQuery Mobile, Kendo UI, Corona, Titanium Appcelerator, RubyMotion and many others. Among these they allow building apps using Javascript, Java, Lua and Ruby.

So how do you choose what framework to use? Here are few pointers that will help you in your decision.

Do you know programming?

Most of the frameworks expect you to know programming. But even if you don’t know programming a number of app builders allow you to build sophisticated apps in a drag and drop environment. If you are building a game, GameSalad has a intuitive Drag and Drop UI which will allow you to build apps with no coding. If you are building a business app BiznessApps will let you build apps for many common scenarios.

What language do you know?

The “native” languages for IOS is Objective-C and for Android is Java. Even if you don’t know these languages you can build apps in a language you know.

If you know Javascript, you can use Sencha Touch to build a HTML5 app and then compile it for iOS or Android native app using Phonegap.

If you know Lua you can write a cross platform native game using Corona. If you know Ruby, RubyMotion will help you build an iPhone and iPad app. If you know Java but want to build for iPhone, you can use GWT-touch to build your HTML5 app and then compile them using PhoneGap.

How native do you want? How much cross platform do you want it?

There is a tradeoff which some of the frameworks make. Sencha, jQtouch and GWT-touch will create a HTML5 app and then convert them for the platform look and feel. The apps in this case look near-native, but unless you are very careful, not 100% native. In comparison, Titanium and Corona create apps using native UI components. They look 100% native.

The advantage the HTML5 apps have is that they are more cross platform and can be compiled for more platforms. They can also be deployed on the web without making any code changes.

Are you a web developer and want to continue using your old tools?

Another advantage these HTML5 apps have is that a web developer already knows most of the technologies and has most of the tools available. For instance, if you use jQuery Mobile and Phonegap to build your mobile apps, you can use your IDE which you have always been using, you can use Chrome Inspector or Firebug for debugging. If you want to use your trusty tools, use Sencha or jQuery Mobile.

How-to: Numbered Pagination for your WordPress Blog

Brajeshwar — Fri, 11 May 2012 05:06:15 +0000

There are a bunch of awesome WordPress Plugins that can do Numbered Pagination for your WordPress powered blog. However, it may be noted that WordPress have the option to do it without relying on a plugin.

Let’s do a clean, nice and simple numbered pagination as seen on this blog. You can choose to have either the light or the dark version.

Here is the code modified from WordPress Reference doc on Pagination. The code is pretty self-explanatory. Just put it where you want your pagination to appear.

 str_replace($big, '%#%', get_pagenum_link($big)),
        'format' => '?paged=%#%',
        'total' => $wp_query->max_num_pages,
        'current' => max(1, get_query_var('paged')),
        'show_all' => false,
        'end_size' => 2,
        'mid_size' => 3,
        'prev_next' => true,
        'prev_text' => 'Prev',
        'next_text' => 'Next',
        'type' => 'list'
    ));
?>

And here is paginate style module on my site. Feel free to use it this version or tweak it from the original – Pagination Styles Demo (Source on Github). The source have the codes for both light and dark version.

ul.page-numbers {
  list-style: none;
  margin: 1em auto;
  padding: 0;
  text-align: center;
  color: #555555;
  text-transform: uppercase;
  font-size: 90%;
}
ul.page-numbers li {
  display: inline;
}
ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers {
  -webkit-border-radius: 3px;
  -moz-border-radius: 3px;
  -o-border-radius: 3px;
  border-radius: 3px;
  -webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 0 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
  -moz-box-shadow: 0 0 0 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
  box-shadow: 0 0 0 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
  background-color: #676767;
  background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 50% 0%, 50% 100%, color-stop(0%, #f9f9f9), color-stop(100%, #eaeaea));
  background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(#f9f9f9, #eaeaea);
  background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(#f9f9f9, #eaeaea);
  background-image: -o-linear-gradient(#f9f9f9, #eaeaea);
  background-image: linear-gradient(#f9f9f9, #eaeaea);
  margin: 2px;
  padding: 5px 10px;
  display: inline-block;
  border-top: 1px solid #fff;
  text-decoration: none !important;
  color: #555555 !important;
  font-size: smaller !important;
  text-shadow: white 0 1px 0;
}
ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers:first-child, ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers.first {
  margin-left: 0;
}
ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers:last-child, ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers.last {
  margin-right: 0;
}
ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers:hover, ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers:focus {
  color: #333333;
  border-color: #fff;
  background-color: #fdfdfd;
  background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 50% 0%, 50% 100%, color-stop(0%, #fefefe), color-stop(100%, #fafafa));
  background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(#fefefe, #fafafa);
  background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(#fefefe, #fafafa);
  background-image: -o-linear-gradient(#fefefe, #fafafa);
  background-image: linear-gradient(#fefefe, #fafafa);
}
ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers.more {
  -webkit-box-shadow: none;
  -moz-box-shadow: none;
  box-shadow: none;
  border: 0 none !important;
  background: transparent !important;
  margin-left: 0;
  margin-right: 0;
}
ul.page-numbers a.page-numbers.active {
  -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);
  -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);
  box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);
  border-color: #505050 !important;
  color: #f2f2f2 !important;
  text-shadow: black 0 1px 0;
  background-color: #676767;
  background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 50% 0%, 50% 100%, color-stop(0%, #5f5f5f), color-stop(100%, #5c5c5c));
  background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
  background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
  background-image: -o-linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
  background-image: linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
}
ul.page-numbers .prev:before {
  content: "\2039";
  padding-right: 0.5em;
}
ul.page-numbers .next:after {
  content: "\203A";
  padding-left: 0.5em;
}
ul.page-numbers .dots {
  -webkit-box-shadow: none;
  -moz-box-shadow: none;
  box-shadow: none;
  border: 0 none !important;
  background: transparent !important;
  color: #999999 !important;
  margin-left: 0.25em;
  margin-right: 0.25em;
}
ul.page-numbers .current {
  -webkit-border-radius: 3px;
  -moz-border-radius: 3px;
  -o-border-radius: 3px;
  border-radius: 3px;
  -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);
  -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);
  box-shadow: inset 0 0 0 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75);
  background-color: #676767;
  background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 50% 0%, 50% 100%, color-stop(0%, #5f5f5f), color-stop(100%, #5c5c5c));
  background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
  background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
  background-image: -o-linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
  background-image: linear-gradient(#5f5f5f, #5c5c5c);
  margin: 2px;
  padding: 5px 10px;
  display: inline-block;
  border-top: 1px solid #fff;
  text-decoration: none !important;
  font-size: smaller !important;
  border-color: #505050 !important;
  color: #f2f2f2 !important;
  text-shadow: black 0 1px 0;
}

That’s it. A nice numbered pagination for your WordPress Blog without the need of a plugin.

Congress creates (another) superfluous Task Force to examine possible Government Spectrum Auction

Robin Wilding — Mon, 07 May 2012 05:49:51 +0000

After being told so repeatedly, the U.S House of Representatives thinks they might not be using their wireless spectrum block to its full potential, so like any good bureaucracy — they formed a task force. They assuredly hope it will be more effective than pretty much every other task force the government has ever made, or maybe not. The U.S congress is aiming to free-up government-owned spectrum for airwave-hogging 3G and 4G consumer networks and appliances as wireless spectrum availability becomes a strong issue in the country as available spectrum wanes despite less than half the population having upgraded to high-speed 3G and 4G networks.

This bipartisan task force, dubbed the Federal Spectrum Working Group, hopes to trim the fat from their spectrum use to help solve a good chunk of the spectrum crunch. The U.S government is currently the largest owner of wireless spectrum. The FSWG will focus on freeing-up airwaves, especially on spectrum-hogging departments like the Defense Department, who uses a large bulk of government spectrum in surveillance and, surprisingly, weapons testing.

The task force hopes to find spectrum chunks that are used only sporadically or non-continuously, or that have geographic overlaps.

Without such spectrum auctions the U.S wireless community will face rising wireless prices with lower usage caps with possible coverage shortages in the future. This government spectrum auction is just one of the spectrum bunches being eyed for auction by the Federal Communications Commission who are looking to increase the competitiveness of the telecommunications market by answering market shortages. After February’s payroll tax legislation allowing incentives for spectrum-releasing companies, other spectrum bunches are expected to be put to auction shortly, including 120MHz of broadcast TV spectrum.

February’s legislation notably lacked however a solid plan that committed government spectrum to auction, hence the rather inevitable creation of a public-appeasing task force. Despite the formation of this task force it will likely still be a fair while before any government spectrum is actually auctioned off to the highest bidder.

The delay tactics employed by congress come despite the FCC’s approved 2010 National Broadband Plan that indicated the government could quickly free-up spectrum by making licensing and departmental usage more efficient. It also comes despite Obama asking the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to examine possible government spectrum releases, a request in which he was typically cock-blocked by congress.

The NTIA released a report in March that identified 95MHz of government spectrum that could be freed up once users were transitioned off it. The report also detailed how much of government spectrum could be partially released to the private sector by time-sharing blocks of it.

Personally, the task force creation seems to be a make-work or time-stalling technique by congress who does not want to release their own spectrum, as with reports like those available from the NTIA the task force is more redundant than useful. But then again, most task forces are.

More about Raspberry Pi

Deeptaman Mukherjee — Tue, 01 May 2012 05:34:10 +0000

Early in the 1980s, affordable computing was a craze in the market. However, learning about them was a difficult process to the users. Machines such as Atare 400 and early Apples’ were already helping people in exploring the whole new world; giving rise to some of the pioneers in the computing world including the gaming industry.

That continued, till a lot of inventions took place in the tech world. One amongst them, is the — Raspberry Pi.

This credit card sized micro-microcomputer was developed by a UK based company. It has low power consumption and an incredibly cheap ARM based Linux system. And, the next big thing is, that it comes for a price of $35 excluding the local taxes. The main motive behind this is to help the new generation kids in learning the programming stuffs.

Impact of Raspberry Pi

This capable little PC can be used for displaying high definition videos as the GPU is capable of blu ray playback, using H.264 at 40MBits/Sec and it is trying to bring the concept that nothing is impossible. Weighing just 45g, though it lacks the general processing grunt, the performance can be compared with Pentium 2 with only little “swankier” graphics. And, if you still aren’t convinced what a Raspberry Pi can do for you, you got to read – 5 Things You Can Do With the New Raspberry Pi.

Availability

Featuring 356MB RAM, HDMI and audio outputs, USB port and flash card memory slot, there are two models available. The Model-A has just one USB port and no Ethernet port, while the Model B has two USB ports with an Ethernet port. Available in two outlets, Element14 and RS Components, this device has created a huge buzz in the market.

Having begun its’ delivery, Raspberry Pi has already received a plethora of laurels. Many user communities have tutorials, podcasts and even add-ons that can be added to the hardware part in their blogs.

The Expected Changes

It surely has the capability to bring a change in the open-source software world, for instance Aurduino and Linux are ruling the open-source software market. With the ‘getting started’ guide, the RaspberryPi has got a lot of attraction in the market. Altogether, at least a minimum of 3,50,000 pre-orders have been confirmed till now.

When it comes to educating the students, the RaspberryPi offers more than one field of interest. For instance, there will be some students who will be interested in developing the hardware part, while others may involve themselves in to coding part. The coding part can be done in two means – one can use the embedded level which is directed to the ARM core, and others can write in C or python in the Linux platform.

Scope of Improvement

However, there are not sufficient schools with the right staffs to support in educating the students in this platform. Influencing it in the schools will definitely take time. And once when it enters the class rooms, it has the potential to change the future of computing around the world. Though shipping to customers has started last week, this project has been going well in-spite of lack of optimized software.

Till then, let the competition wake up!

Flex-tronics: The Next Hardware Frontier

Robin Wilding — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:34:32 +0000

If you’re reading this then you’re likely a techie; if you’re a techie then you’ve likely already heard of flexible electronics, aka flex circuits, aka flexible printed circuits. And you surely already know that flex-tronics will be one of the next big things, but did you know that as of 2012 they are a $10B business? Yup, they are a multi-billion dollar industry thanks to the support and start-up capital injected by the Flex Tech Alliance (alliance members include Fujifilm, HP, Qualcomm, Lockheed Martin), “it is an industry that is nascent but will grow rapidly. We’re already starting to see new kinds of applications in plastic memory for toys and sensors for aircraft,” says Flex Tech Alliance chief Dr. Malcolm Thomas.

For any techno-n00bs out there, flex-tronics are electronic devices that are flexible and bendy in nature due to their electronic circuits being printed/painted on with flexible plastic substrates. These substrates are created via photolithographic technology using materials like polyimide, PEEK or a simple transparent conductive polyester film. In simple terms a sort-of printer sprays circuit cells onto a flexible substances, in the same way that a printer sprays ink onto a page to print.

If you’re wondering how the industry made it to $10B a year, the uses for flex-tronics have exploded. In the beginning it was thought they would be useful for replacing wire harnesses on cars, rockets and satellites, in static applications like cameras and dynamic applications like foldable cellphones and OLED smartphone screens, but it turns out the industry has come up with several other newsworthy uses for them:

The healthcare industry could be revolutionized via electronic ‘smart’ Band-Aids and skin patches, which could report on wound healing, vital signs, infections, etc.
Goods manufacturing industry like the garment industry who could create wearable electronic t-shirts, cheaply.
Aircraft design in the aerospace industry, due to its incredible lightweight.
Digital signage, printing and packaging like posters, billboards and containers. There are already a couple projects in the works to create flexible-glass for digital signage that could display digital imagery. (Let’s take a moment to enjoy the irony that the electronic medium that essentially killed print media might assist in its revival).
In e-readers like the Kindle who could make lighter, thinner, flexible e-readers.
In solar energy, as a potential roofing material.
As sensors for soldiers that could monitor their position, heart rate, injuries, stress levels, etc.
Smart trading and playing cards that display changing information on a digital display. I’m personally picturing Settlers of Catan players going ape-shit for this technology.
Printed batteries.
Medical innovations in areas like glucose test strips, neuro-prosthetic devices and many more.
Athlete performance-monitoring gear (hence why Nike and Reebok are investing in the technology).

The undoubted reason for the huge spike in the uptake of flex-tronics technology is that the technology is already readily available, despite its new status, and the flexibility of product manufacturing–often at a lower cost than current manufacturing technologies. “You get much more product flexibility, lower costs, and innovation,” says Thompson. “We’re talking about something that is really low-cost that can be re-purposed.”

(Image Credit: VentureBeat)

Ever wanted to take a Supercomputer for a test drive?

Robin Wilding — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 02:30:06 +0000

If you’ve ever wanted to take a supercomputer for a test drive, now is your chance. Solve that probabilistic analysis. Figure out some brute force code breaking. Conduct 3D nuclear testing simulations. Or, if you’re more cosmopolitan, do some Molecular Dynamics Simulations. No matter what your supercomputing needs, Cycle Computing will get you there.

Check this out, it’s brilliant: Cycle Computing is a 20-employee company leveraging the cloud computing movement by timesharing virtual supercomputers out to small companies and individuals who would never have had access (read: funds) to such technology. They use virtual clusters by virtually lashing together 50,000 processors from Amazon Web Services, in the cloud, via their own software.

Cycle Computing’s timeshared virtual supercomputer software was recently used by two small drug companies, Schrodinger and Nimbus Discovery, to perform a series of simulations on over 21 million chemical compounds in an attempt to find a binding protein. By using Cycle Computing’s software on timeshared Amazon data center procs the two companies were able to run 12 and a half years worth of calculations in under three hours.

For a cost of less than $5,000 an hour.

“This enables small companies and any researcher that has a grant to do science that they could never do before,” says Cycle Computing CEO Jason Stowe.

None of this is new of course — just impressive — as Amazon Web Services’ cluster comes in 42nd in a world ranking of the top 500 supercomputers. What IS phenomenal about this is the speed and power now available at such a low price; a technology generally reserved for governments and rich Saudi oil sheiks. Even big name pharmaceutical companies haven’t been able to process that quantity of information at those break-neck speeds.

This marks a major shift in supercomputing as ‘supercomputers’ are finagled across multiple data centers, leveraging tens of thousands of processors virtually to empower start-up corporations with the technology that puts them in the big leagues. This little-ization of so-called ‘Big Data’ is both a playing field leveler and a game changer.

AT&T has Secret Arsenal of new Location-based Apps

Robin Wilding — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:30:16 +0000

The uber-creative minds at the AT&T Labs, AT&T’s research contingent, have been busier than Santa’s elves. Their new smartphone technologies geared at automobiles might border on intrusive but are nonetheless genius. From a hands-free, cellphone-leveraging car unlocking method to digital teenage driver monitoring to location-based messaging AT&T has got an interesting lineup of new technologies coming out soon. This new batch of cool shiznit is highly focused on location-and speech-recognition-based APIs so expect it to be slightly encroaching.

Let’s check them out:

A hands-free new method of unlocking your car door, by tapping your cellphone to a car-door sensor. This even works when the smartphone is in your pocket so door-unlocking hip checking might be in order soon.
A vibrating steering wheel that takes directions from your GPS navigator and vibrates when your reach the next turn.
An app that recognizes if you leave any personal possessions behind.
A location-based messaging system called Donde (‘where’ for anyone who missed high-school Spanish class), to become part of their SMS service, that allows you to send messages to other users on their network that will only be delivered once the recipient arrives at a specific geographic location.

Personally, I would use all of those, so well done AT&T.

Driving Safely

Driving Safely is a major project being worked on by AT&T developers in Israel. This new project uses car electronic systems in combo with a smartphone app, that allows for data to be sent back the owners’ smartphones about how their car is being operated. Think: snooping parents checking up on their (new driver) wild teens. Not only will the application monitor car data it can also deactivate smartphone features like texting and calling when the car is in motion.

You might be thinking so what? There are already apps that do this. And you would be right. BUT, Driving Safely does it without the application having to be installed on the victims’ phones. Snooping parents and jealous wives start your engines! Upon entering the phone number of your intended victim the app begins feeding you info on the car, like where it is located geographically, how much fuel is in the tank, how fast they are driving, if they aren’t wearing their seat-belts, and more. You can even set it to send alerts to your phone if any peculiar driving elements occur, like sudden braking. The software can even drill down with the settings to include more detailed information, like finding out if the driver sent a text message immediately before braking or skidding.

This highly intelligent app can even compile information over time to create a ‘driving profile’, with average speeds, braking patterns, seatbelt use, etc.

Let’s hope the insurance companies don’t get their hands on this.