via youtube.com
A personal mentor showed me this YouTube video today. Our discussion included the big question: "What do you want out of life?"
Hope this video inspires you.
jaime sorgente's posterous
thought-crumbs & casual tirades
Exploring and Using "Patentable" Technology
Am currently researching for my liberal course Politics: Power and Change in Technological Society where we have been assigned a research paper/case study of a specific technology. I am writing on the Patents and Power of software.
In my research I found an essay written by Paul Graham three years ago, entitled Are Software Patents Evil?. In this piece Graham proves how little power patents play in the software business. Graham argues, that aside from "patent trolls" suing for patent infringement, software innovation is often left unfettered by patents. Although outlying cases do exist--suing for patent infringement requires a lot of resources--and often the costs (shifting public opinions; opportunity cost of wasting time and not solving the problem internally; etc.) of going to court and battling it out remain too high a barrier.
More to the point, he remarks:
Most innovation in the software business happens in startups, and startups should simply ignore other companies' patents. At least, that's what we advise, and we bet money on that advice.
Graham concludes that building applications that solve problems remain a lucrative business. Startups won't avoid working on projects because of patent challenges.
So heres my point: the last thing I did before I fell asleep last night was read Graham's essay. I woke up this morning somewhat inspired and somehow landed back at PaulGraham.com. On the bio page his authored works are listed and linked to Amazon.
Two clicks later and I am one-click away from buying Hackers & Painters on my Kindle for PC (awesome application but I really want the device for Christmas):
In his essay, Graham calls out the "obvious"one-click patent (remains yet to be determined) as evidence to Amazon's clout. Amazon has the power "to force customers to log in before [buying] something". This morning my browser automatically logged me into Amazon. The purchase barrier was removed and I suspect, without Amazon's cookie, I may have been less willing to purchase the book.
Was it clout that led me to pull the trigger and buy or a highly effective marketing engine? I am leaning more to the latter point.
[Social media] mobilizes masses - but what for? - The Globe and Mail
By continuing to externally validate our existences--we can't change the world?
I better put my head down and get back to work.
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Check out the full marketing course table available here ryerson.ca
Who knew?!
My First Look: Streetside in Bing Maps
Check out this video on the Bing Maps new release at channel9.msdn.com
I love the MS-stack integration happening here. I am only beginning to appreciate how the Photosynth service fits inside their Search offering. Using the Twitter pipe in a new (haven't vetted this) innovative way is also a sweet result of their partnership.
Not sure how adoption will play out with the Windows/SilverLight/IE reliance but the whole "Map apps" feature could be huge. If they issue a friendly SDK--like with the MS Surface--we may just see a cool ecosystem develop.
Kellogg on Marketing for Microsoft - Pre-Readings
Check out this website I found at kellogg.northwestern.edu
