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I'm a social capitalist in Central Europe looking for good ideas and great teams. This blog is a sample of what I've been reading around the Internet. Enjoy!

Archive

Feb
15th
Mon
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Social networking has been a graveyard for the media industry, with users happy to leave behind sites that fail to continue innovating, in favour of younger, faster rivals. Friends Reunited, bought by ITV in 2005 for £120m, was sold off last year for a mere £25m, while AOL is said to be looking to offload Bebo, which it bought for $850m in 2008.
Feb
11th
Thu
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God bless those hard-working techies in Silicon Valley for inventing this constant stream of things that serve mostly to make me feel guilty because I don’t want to use them even though everyone else says they’re the greatest thing ever.
Feb
10th
Wed
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NASA officials announced today the successful launch of the new shuttle Moonage Daydream, marking the beginning of a long-anticipated two-week conceptual mission inspired by British rock star David Bowie. (via NASA Launches David Bowie Concept Mission | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source
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NASA officials announced today the successful launch of the new shuttle Moonage Daydream, marking the beginning of a long-anticipated two-week conceptual mission inspired by British rock star David Bowie. (via NASA Launches David Bowie Concept Mission | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source

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The first crowd-designed car—the Rally Fighter—is already available, with production limited to 2,000 units (41 already sold). A price of around USD 50,000 adds to the exclusivity, but customers are not just buying a car: realising the high value today’s consumers place on unique experience and status stories, Local Motors invites every buyer to help build their own vehicle over two weekends. Owners can even host their own competition on the website for a custom “skin” design for their vehicle. (via Crowdsourced dream cars inspired by destinations - Springwise
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The first crowd-designed car—the Rally Fighter—is already available, with production limited to 2,000 units (41 already sold). A price of around USD 50,000 adds to the exclusivity, but customers are not just buying a car: realising the high value today’s consumers place on unique experience and status stories, Local Motors invites every buyer to help build their own vehicle over two weekends. Owners can even host their own competition on the website for a custom “skin” design for their vehicle. (via Crowdsourced dream cars inspired by destinations - Springwise

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Researchers say the Sun is awakening after a period of low activity, which does not bode well for a world ever more dependent on satellite navigation. (via BBC News - Sat-nav devices face big errors as solar activity rises
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Researchers say the Sun is awakening after a period of low activity, which does not bode well for a world ever more dependent on satellite navigation. (via BBC News - Sat-nav devices face big errors as solar activity rises

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Feb
9th
Tue
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[I]t turns out that readers have more exalted tastes, according to the Penn researchers, Jonah Berger and Katherine A. Milkman. People preferred e-mailing articles with positive rather than negative themes, and they liked to send long articles on intellectually challenging topics.
Feb
7th
Sun
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Scientists have built a clock which is 100,000 times more precise than the existing international standard. The quantum-logic clock, which detects the energy state of a single aluminum ion, keeps time to within a second every 3.7 billion years. The new timekeeper could one day improve GPS or detect the slowing of time predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. “It could it be a real contender for the next frequency standard, or next timekeeper,” said physicist Chin-wen (James) Chou of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, lead author of a study to appear in a forthcoming Physical Review Letters. (via Ultra-Precise Quantum-Logic Clock Puts Old Atomic Clock to Shame | Wired Science | Wired.com
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Scientists have built a clock which is 100,000 times more precise than the existing international standard. The quantum-logic clock, which detects the energy state of a single aluminum ion, keeps time to within a second every 3.7 billion years. The new timekeeper could one day improve GPS or detect the slowing of time predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. “It could it be a real contender for the next frequency standard, or next timekeeper,” said physicist Chin-wen (James) Chou of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, lead author of a study to appear in a forthcoming Physical Review Letters. (via Ultra-Precise Quantum-Logic Clock Puts Old Atomic Clock to Shame | Wired Science | Wired.com

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Jan
31st
Sun
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Apple represents the “auteur model of innovation,” observes John Kao, a consultant to corporations and governments on innovation. In the auteur model, he said, there is a tight connection between the personality of the project leader and what is created. Movies created by powerful directors, he says, are clear examples, from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” to James Cameron’s “Avatar.” At Apple, there is a similar link between the ultimate design-team leader, Mr. Jobs, and the products. From computers to smartphones, Apple products are known for being stylish, powerful and pleasing to use. They are edited products that cut through complexity, by consciously leaving things out — not cramming every feature that came into an engineer’s head, an affliction known as “featuritis” that burdens so many technology products. “A defining quality of Apple has been design restraint,” says Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster and consultant in Silicon Valley. (via Steve Jobs and the Economics of Elitism - NYTimes.com
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Apple represents the “auteur model of innovation,” observes John Kao, a consultant to corporations and governments on innovation. In the auteur model, he said, there is a tight connection between the personality of the project leader and what is created. Movies created by powerful directors, he says, are clear examples, from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” to James Cameron’s “Avatar.” At Apple, there is a similar link between the ultimate design-team leader, Mr. Jobs, and the products. From computers to smartphones, Apple products are known for being stylish, powerful and pleasing to use. They are edited products that cut through complexity, by consciously leaving things out — not cramming every feature that came into an engineer’s head, an affliction known as “featuritis” that burdens so many technology products. “A defining quality of Apple has been design restraint,” says Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster and consultant in Silicon Valley. (via Steve Jobs and the Economics of Elitism - NYTimes.com

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Jan
29th
Fri
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Here’s what Apple needs to do: stop trying to convince me that an iPad is better than a Netbook. That’s not the point. I have plenty of things in my life that can bring me a calendar, music, photos, and touch-screen painting. I don’t need more of that (no matter how pretty you make it). Don’t try to put the iPad between a laptop and a smart phone—that positioning doesn’t make any sense to anyone, and no one needs that.
Start pitching this thing as the actual replacement for paper. Get some serious content deals with periodicals and papers, and maybe even offer a combined subscription service that lets you choose 8 or 10 papers and magazines for a flat fee. Get the bookstore up to Amazon stock levels, put an e-ink/LCD hybrid display in the next version, and get serious about what this really is: a multimedia reader. (Also, get your product line and pricing in order and stop trying to act like a 3G chip really costs an extra $130.) See you in three to five years!