g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

The system should do the thinking

There is irreducible complexity with every task, but the system should be designed to carry the maximum burden of the task. Communication is one where there is much reduction to be done. Phone numbers and address are obsolete. There should be one item, say your email address, or a new 'unified address' which connects to you. Phone, mail, email...whatever. So for example a person's contact would ALWAYS be john.doe@anywhere.contact. On my phone, that is what I would dial. If I need to send a letter to John Doe, all I would have to write is that on the envelope..etc. The system is where the burden of figuring it all out exists. It is much much more efficient for me, as the address owner, to update the end address rather than for everyone of the the people I know to have to update their address books or phone book everytime I change something.

New search engin

Just found a search engine that was launched very recently. www.cuil.com
Built by ex-google engineers, back with more than $33 million in funding. For now I'm putting it as my default search in Firefox, playing with the new toy.

Solar power on windows

Great research about concentrating light to the edges of a piece of glass.
http://www.physorg.com/news134917794.html

New and interesting startups

ReQall.com - remind yourself of stuff
Peer39.com - semantic advertising
mashery.com - supporting custom mashups for companies

Design at every level

While waiting at SFO airport, the simple act of eating a sandwich made me, once again, realize the importance of thoughtful design for a product.

The sandwich I bought looked appealing enough. It was one of many sitting inside an open chiller. In a clear-top box about a foot long and three or four inches wide. The sandwich, on a short baguette roll, was cut in half on a diagonal, so as to expose the layers of cheese, ham and lettuce. All together the presentation was attractive and colorful.

However, as I took my first bite, I wondered if the person who made this sandwich has ever tried to eat it. It is simply impossible to take a satisfying bite out of the thing. The whole thing is about three inches thick and three inches wide, and unless you have an unusually wide mouth, very challenging to bite into. (Ok, make your dirty jokes now.)

It seems as if the 'designer' tried to maximize the perceived value in the item by maximizing the amount of material used. However, what was forgotten was that the interaction experience has to be scaled appropriately, human scaled.

The best products and services know how to engage the human scale through every aspect of the product life cycle. Even a sandwich.

Productivity takes to the web

I'm happy to see the plethora of online productivity tools emerge. 37signals was leading the a few years ago, now there are dozens of tools suited to every need and niche.

Check some out at the Webware.

Blurring the lines; persistent computing.

Persistent computing bliss. Adobe AIR. Article at NYT.
As computers become more powerful and network connection becomes ubiquitous, we are going full circle and returning to the client-server model of centralized computing.

Can't wait.

Designed Objects

A blog. Some interesting content. http://designedobjects.blogspot.com/

How to flip a ship.

Article in wired about how Titan, a salvage company, flipped the Cougar Ace back upright.

Links this week.

Seth Godin's presentation at google here.

Umair Haque of HBS on the shrinking advantage of brands.

HBS discussion leaders. Good thoughts!

Super Future, an interesting concept site.

Leading Questions. Thoughts in general.

Presentation Paradox (via blogoscoped.com)

Here is a fun article about designing / presenting a simple tool vs. complex tool.

Learning to divide

So I was listening to the radio today and hear an ad about an auto trading and selling website. It was trying to differentiate itself by offering quotes with a monthly payment rate, and also enable you to search by monthly payments. Granted, pulling an amortization schedule together is not for everyone, but the first question which came to mind was: have people lost the ability to divide?

Errors make up part of expertise

Scientific America reports that even expert song birds make deliberate mistakes. Scientists report this in the Dec. 20th issue of Nature.

Sling it

Sling box has a distinctive design which signals high-technology but also ease of use and consumer friendliness, and is a compelling product offering for the market it targets.

The website has a pretty unique opening flash, not the annoying ones you usually get, but instead a person speaking to you, on the down to earth level. He's lack of refinement subtlety puts you at ease with the technology ('if this bumbling idiot can understand, then I must be able to').

Changing the movie rental paradigm

Porto media is on the way to change the movie rental paradigm. They worked with IBM to develop technology that can download movies to USB memory sticks is less than half a min. Currently they have kiosks developed, and are working with Universal.

(Via. www.ibm.com/do)

Business model built around mass customization

Mass customization is an emerging trend. Ponoko is a company which operates on both ends of the business model. 1) For the creatively inclined designs can be laser cut and made for your, or you can sell your designs. 2) For the machine shop, incremental, low volume business can be driven.

The webpage has a fantastic interface, and there is already a small market place. Time to get creative.

As a side note there is a similar business which was promoted in an HP ad campaign. I can't recall the name, but it was also another machine shop.

Graffiti your password.

Bank of America already uses images as part of its online sign-in system. This week the latest incarnation of 'Draw a Secret' method was described. You draw or graffiti on top of a background image. More at arstechnica.

Crunchbase

www.crunchbase.com

www.aboutus.org

Weekly Dose - Nov 4 - 10

So its been a while.
killerstartups.com good idea, terrible execution. But some on the list this week comes from there.

Corbis boutique is an interesting concept.
Myngle.com is a beta for language teachers and learners around the world. Hey. Sounds familiar.
ask500people.com is a fun concept. Sign up, ask questions. Watch the answers and results come in on a live map.
actionthis.com is an online project management system. Looks pretty slick. Built on Amazon S3. Looks like another basecamp esque clone. On another note, just saw a graphic designer company which does some work for the company I'm working for uses basecamp to interface with the client (us). Very nice. Funny thing is, the person from my company using it didn't even know that it was basecamp.

Radiohead appealing to the long tail?

Today, Oct 10 is the day that Radiohead releases their new album In Rainbows at the low low price of whatever you want to pay. The have decided to by pass the greedy music executives and strike out on their own.

This model spreads their music further and appeals to the long tail, and they are able to achieve benefits from the masses because of zero marginal distribution costs. Love it.

No excuse

There is no excuse to be not learning, especially about all the aspects involved in entrepreneurship. There is a plethora of resources available. I was just hunting around Inc.com and fastcompany.com. There is an amazing amount of articles written by subject-matter experts, all for free. So, learn.

DBpedia

An interesting resource, extracting structured information from Wikipedia. http://dbpedia.org/

Black Ballon

This is a great awareness ad by climateprotect.org

Cost of life

HU021364
Originally uploaded by knickersthongs

Currently, there is a massive search and rescue mission in progress to locate adventurer Steve Fossett, when went missing earlier this week. An article by wired.com says:

"The 55,000-member patrol is an all-volunteer auxiliary of the U.S. Air
Force with units in every state, a fleet of 530 single-engine planes
and a $27.5 million budget. Last year, according to a report to
Congress, the patrol was credited with saving 58 lives and finding more
than a hundred missing planes."

So $27.5 million dollars saved 58 lives, which amounts to $474,137.93 per life. I do not want to put a dollar value to life, or make a value judgment in anyway, but just want to put some perspective to this figure.

$474,137.93 would...
...provide one year of nutritional support for 1968 HIV patients @ $0.66/day (wfp.org).
...feed 1,436,781 impoverished children for one day @ $0.33/day (somerandomdude.com).
...buy you 2.57 Ferrari F430 Scuderias @
$184,309/Italian stallion (automotive.com).
...put you up in a house in orange county some where.
...gets you a 37 sqcm or 5.74 sqin (0.45%) piece of Picasso's Garcon a la Pipe (8130sq cm), which sold for $104 Million in 2004.

You get the picture.

In a world of inequality, the words of a wise president rings true:
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance
of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who
have too little." -Franklin D. Roosevelt