Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Nano Water Treatment Needed
http://www.nanotech-now.com/news.cgi?story_id=28193
This story itself doesn't say anything groundbreaking, but other stories have mentioned the growing ubiquitousness of traces of pharmceuticals in water supplies around the world. (Lucky we live Hawaii where our 'treated' wastewater goes out to sea, and not into the drinking water supply loop.) Someone could do a lot of good and make bundles of cash if they could make a nano membrane that wicks these tiny compounds out of water. It would first be a high-end treatment technology for ultra pure drinking water, but eventually could be rolled out to treat wastewater so that these undigested and half-metabolizes drugs don't get into our ecosystems and drinking water sources in the first place.
This story itself doesn't say anything groundbreaking, but other stories have mentioned the growing ubiquitousness of traces of pharmceuticals in water supplies around the world. (Lucky we live Hawaii where our 'treated' wastewater goes out to sea, and not into the drinking water supply loop.) Someone could do a lot of good and make bundles of cash if they could make a nano membrane that wicks these tiny compounds out of water. It would first be a high-end treatment technology for ultra pure drinking water, but eventually could be rolled out to treat wastewater so that these undigested and half-metabolizes drugs don't get into our ecosystems and drinking water sources in the first place.
Apple's design process
Apple's design process
Posted by: Helen Walters on March 08
Posted by: Helen Walters on March 08
Interesting presentation at SXSW from Michael Lopp, senior engineering
manager at Apple, who tried to assess how Apple "gets" design when so
many other companies try and fail. After describing Apple's process of
delivering consumers with a succession of presents ("really good ideas
wrapped up in other really good ideas" - in other words, great software
in fabulous hardware in beautiful packaging), he asked the question many
have asked in their time: "How the f*ck do you do that?" (South by
Southwest is at ease with its panelists speaking earthily.) Then he went
into a few details:
Pixel Perfect Mockups
This, Lopp admitted, causes a huge amount of work and takes an enormous
amount of time. But, he added, "it removes all ambiguity." That might
add time up front, but it removes the need to correct mistakes later on.
10 to 3 to 1
Apple designers come up with 10 entirely different mock ups of any new
feature. Not, Lopp said, "seven in order to make three look good", which
seems to be a fairly standard practice elsewhere. They'll take ten, and
give themselves room to design without restriction. Later they whittle
that number to three, spend more months on those three and then finally
end up with one strong decision.
Paired Design Meetings
This was really interesting. Every week, the teams have two meetings.
One in which to brainstorm, to forget about constraints and think
freely. As Lopp put
it: to "go crazy". Then they also hold a production meeting, an entirely
separate but equally regular meeting which is the other's antithesis.
Here, the designers and engineers are required to nail everything down,
to work out how this crazy idea might actually work. This process and
organization continues throughout the development of any app, though of
course the balance shifts as the app progresses. But keeping an option
for creative thought even at a late stage is really smart.
Pony Meeting
This refers to a story Lopp told earlier in the session, in which he
described the process of a senior manager outlining what they wanted
from any new
application: "I want WYSIWYG... I want it to support major browsers... I
want it to reflect the spirit of the company." Or, as Lopp put it: "I
want a pony!" He
added: "Who doesn't? A pony is gorgeous!" The problem, he said, is that
these people are describing what they think they want. And even if
they're misguided, they, as the ones signing the checks, really cannot
be ignored.
The solution, he described, is to take the best ideas from the paired
design meetings and present those to leadership, who might just decide
that some of those ideas are, in fact, their longed-for ponies. In this
way, the ponies morph into deliverables. And the C-suite, who are quite
reasonable in wanting to know what designers are up to, and absolutely
entitled to want to have a say in what's going on, are involved and
included. And that helps to ensure that there are no nasty mistakes down
the line.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
NanoRadio
Alex Zettl's tiny radios, built from nanotubes, could improve everything from cell phones to medical diagnostics.
Shell shock
"An MIT materials scientist's research on sea snails has helped transform battery technology and may end the era when cell phones die if they're dropped and PDAs must be replaced if they get dunked in the tub.
Thanks to those sea snails and a eureka moment, Angela Belcher, Germeshausen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering, is developing smart nano-materials--hybrids of organic and inorganic components--beginning with a rechargeable, biologically based battery that looks like plastic food wrap. ..."
Thanks to those sea snails and a eureka moment, Angela Belcher, Germeshausen Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering, is developing smart nano-materials--hybrids of organic and inorganic components--beginning with a rechargeable, biologically based battery that looks like plastic food wrap. ..."
Friday, March 7, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Hawaii’s billion-dollar tech sector
Hawaii’s billion-dollar tech sector
Filed Under Sunrise on KGMB9
Politicians do this a lot: they sell an expensive project to the public by promising a lower price tag and a shorter time frame than will probably turn out to be the case. The way they do it is to accept the unreasonably optimistic forecasts that are given to them by consultants and other unsavory people.
We do this a lot: when something that politicians promised us fails to materialize in the time frame we were given, we jump to the conclusion that it will NEVER happen.
That’s what happened with Hawaii’s technology sector.
Politicians a generation ago got so excited about diversifying the economy that people got the impression it would arrive 10 minutes after tax credits were enacted. Instead, it took years. When it happened, many didn’t noticed, or assumed it was a scam, because they had fallen into the fallacy that late arrival mean no arrival.
They nodded their heads knowingly when the occasional tech start-up folded or moved to the mainland.
Remember the computer graphics company that went broke? Sure you do. What you may not remember is that another company bought the equipment and today is the highly successful renderfarm company Pipelinefx, still based in Honolulu.
Remember CheapTickets? It was sold to a big mainland company and moved to the mainland, eventually phasing out most of its Hawaii operations.
But other companies, like Oceanit and STI and Hawaii Biotech and Hoala Medical and Loea, have continued to operate and thrive in Hawaii.
The Hawaii Science & Technology Council briefed state lawmakers Wednesday and told them that for a 2002-2005 investment of less than $195 million the state got expenditures of more than $1 billion, half of it in wages and salaries for 5,383 jobs that pay an average $67,000 a year.
Act 221 companies generated 287 jobs, but the whole tech community benefits from those tax credit, so the credits are responsible for more jobs than that.
As tourism eases back from record highs we will be increasingly glad that officials of the last generation made the effort to diversify the economy.
So what should lawmakers do now?
Nothing.
There are a few states offering better tax credits than Hawaii does. And there are many states with better reputations for bending over backwards for business. But on the other hand we have the weather and the scenery and the culture and the food and the music and the key people in high-tech research and development are the sort of people who can name their terms and work where they like.
The best thing we can do with the tech tax credits is leave them alone, leave the rules of our local game unchanged for several years, and content ourselves with the tax revenue that comes from the payrolls and spending these companies have. Let the mainland venture capital community get used to the current situation; don’t fiddle with it.
Filed Under Sunrise on KGMB9
Politicians do this a lot: they sell an expensive project to the public by promising a lower price tag and a shorter time frame than will probably turn out to be the case. The way they do it is to accept the unreasonably optimistic forecasts that are given to them by consultants and other unsavory people.
We do this a lot: when something that politicians promised us fails to materialize in the time frame we were given, we jump to the conclusion that it will NEVER happen.
That’s what happened with Hawaii’s technology sector.
Politicians a generation ago got so excited about diversifying the economy that people got the impression it would arrive 10 minutes after tax credits were enacted. Instead, it took years. When it happened, many didn’t noticed, or assumed it was a scam, because they had fallen into the fallacy that late arrival mean no arrival.
They nodded their heads knowingly when the occasional tech start-up folded or moved to the mainland.
Remember the computer graphics company that went broke? Sure you do. What you may not remember is that another company bought the equipment and today is the highly successful renderfarm company Pipelinefx, still based in Honolulu.
Remember CheapTickets? It was sold to a big mainland company and moved to the mainland, eventually phasing out most of its Hawaii operations.
But other companies, like Oceanit and STI and Hawaii Biotech and Hoala Medical and Loea, have continued to operate and thrive in Hawaii.
The Hawaii Science & Technology Council briefed state lawmakers Wednesday and told them that for a 2002-2005 investment of less than $195 million the state got expenditures of more than $1 billion, half of it in wages and salaries for 5,383 jobs that pay an average $67,000 a year.
Act 221 companies generated 287 jobs, but the whole tech community benefits from those tax credit, so the credits are responsible for more jobs than that.
As tourism eases back from record highs we will be increasingly glad that officials of the last generation made the effort to diversify the economy.
So what should lawmakers do now?
Nothing.
There are a few states offering better tax credits than Hawaii does. And there are many states with better reputations for bending over backwards for business. But on the other hand we have the weather and the scenery and the culture and the food and the music and the key people in high-tech research and development are the sort of people who can name their terms and work where they like.
The best thing we can do with the tech tax credits is leave them alone, leave the rules of our local game unchanged for several years, and content ourselves with the tax revenue that comes from the payrolls and spending these companies have. Let the mainland venture capital community get used to the current situation; don’t fiddle with it.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
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