Tuesday, September 30, 2014

IoT: Simulate Arduino online

123D Circuits:

"Simulate Arduino online and easily create custom circuit boards
Design and simulate circuit boards with ourbreadboard, schematic and PCB editor.
Share your designs and collaborate as a team."


Office 365 Solutions Dev

Office 365:

"You can use your Office 365 Small Business or Office 365 Enterprise subscription to develop solutions. If you don’t have an Office 365 subscription yet, sign up by clicking the following link. The subscription includes an Office 365 Developer Site where you can create and test your apps and other solutions. The different Office 365 subscriptions determine which services you can access, and what types of solutions you can build."




Microsoft WinRT OCR Library

Microsoft DevRadio: Microsoft OCR Library - Enabling Windows apps to Recognize Text in Images | DevRadio | Channel 9

Microsoft OCR Library for Windows Runtime  developed by Microsoft offices in Serbia, free for WinRT apps.

Microsoft OCR Library Sample in C#, C++, JavaScript for Visual Studio 2013

NuGet Gallery | Microsoft OCR Library for Windows Runtime 1.0.0

OCR Method in Office @ MSDN

OCR with Microsoft® Office - CodeProject


Microsoft iOS & Android keyboard

Microsoft creates a keyboard for iOS and Android tablets | The Verge:

"Microsoft has created a keyboard designed for iOS, Android, and Windows tablets."

Abundance: Global Learning XPRIZE ($15 M)

Learning | XPRIZE
"The Learning Prize Group envisions a future with unprecedented, individually-tailored opportunities for lifelong learning, literacy, autonomy, and career readiness, as well as widespread tools for uplifting entire populations from the vicious cycle of poverty. We aim to empower a universally-educated population, with equal access to information and knowledge regardless of age, gender, race, nationality, or socio-economic status."

$15 M, for software that could teach illiterate person anywhere in the world to become literate in 18 months, by personalized education;
will test 5 leading in Africa, and open source it to be available on every phone and tablet

Abundance the Book - by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler — Abundance - the Future is Better Than You Think - is a new book by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. Official Abundance the Book website.

Bill Clinton Interviews Peter Diamandis on Abundance
"uplifting humanity"
"do it yourself economy"
"world's biggest problems are world's biggest opportunities"
"energy to come from solar revolution" (we get 5000 times from sun than it is needed)"
"aquaculture and vertical farming"










Windows 10 "like Tesla"

Why Did Microsoft Brand Its Next OS Windows 10?
Windows 10 Start Menu

Microsoft's Windows 10: What's new and how to get the preview bits | ZDNet
windows10
preview coming October 1st

"Microsoft's goal is to make Windows 7 users feel as though they are upgrading from a Prius to a Tesla with Windows 10 without having to relearn how to drive." :)

Microsoft's next OS is Windows 10, will ship later in 2015 @ engadget

Google X--, Google Y (2.0) "Smart Cities"

Founder Sebastian Thrun left Google X in August, now serves solely as an advisor | 9to5Google:

"Google X founder and Google VP Sebastian Thrun decided to leave his position last month, according to a change on his LinkedIn page picked up by TechCrunch. As confirmed by Google earlier today, Thrun will remain in an advisory role only at Google.

Thrun was a driving force behind the company’s efforts to build an automated car and also previously headed up the Google Glass project. However, both projects have since been passed to other leaders."


"A little over a year ago, Google CEO Larry Page convened his direct reports, the company’s dozen or so senior vice presidents, for a project that would take up two days a week for a couple of months. About 100 other employees below the SVP rank also participated in the effort, dubbed Google 2.0 …
...
What sort of problems would Project Y tackle? A more efficient airport design is one idea that has been mooted, and another is the slightly more ambitious idea of a completely new approach to how cities work."


Future Cities and Smart Technologies: A Landscape of Ambition and Caution: Special Theme @ ERCIM

Tesseract OCR free open source software (!)

Tesseract (software) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Tesseract is an optical character recognition engine for various operating systems.[2] It is free software, released under the Apache License, Version 2.0,[1][3][4] and development has been sponsored by Google since 2006.[5]Tesseract is considered one of the most accurate open source OCR engines currently available.[4][6]




Sunday, September 28, 2014

define: Bias for Action

What is bias for action? definition and meaning:
"Propensity to act or decide without customary analysis or sufficient information 'just do it' and contemplate later. Popularized by Tom Peters, author of 'In Search For Excellence,' as a distinguishing feature of agile firms."

Amazon.com: Amazon Values
Locations Title


"Bias for Action
Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking."


Office 365 Trial @ Microsoft Virtual Academy

Getting the Most out of Your Office 365 Trial:

"This course steps you through Office 365 plan selection, initial user deployment, service configuration, real-time testing, and more. Set up your domain, try the new Outlook Web Access, and work with a SharePoint collaboration site. End the day with a complete Office 365 trial tenant, ready for further evaluation and experimentation."


SVG: Stroke Attributes

a nice tutorial how to use "stroke" tool in SVG, to make better images



Using SVG Stroke Attributes - Modern Web




web: CSS tricks

continuous evolution of the (modern/responsive) web...



5 things you won't believe are only built with CSS - Modern Web:



(CSS) BareKit



podcast: More CSS than JavaScript with Trevan Hetzel @ .NET Rocks!



Foundation | The Most Advanced Responsive Front-end Framework from ZURB

(alternative to Bootstrap)



Responsive CSS Framework Comparison: Bootstrap, Foundation, Skeleton

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Cold Fusion "Alchemy" confirmed?

Changing one chemical element to another usually requires fusion (like in stars). 
There is also a possibility of "cold fusion", done by chemical reaction, not high-energy heat. And apparently that is achieved already? Not lead to gold, and not producing power, but changing one element to another anyway... 

Cold Fusion GeekOut @ .NET Rocks!
"Carl and Richard dive into the most controversial aspect of fusion power, so-called "cold fusion." This is a sensitive topic in the scientific community, so much so that it's name changes on a regular basis. The current popular name is Low Energy Nuclear Reactions"

"Researchers from Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories performed an independent replication of a Mitsubishi low-energy nuclear reaction transmutation experiment, according to a physicist from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries...
Toyota researchers confirmed that nuclear changes from one element to another took place without the use of high-energy nuclear physics."

IoT: Microsoft Azure Intelligent Systems Service

Microsoft Azure Intelligent Systems Service | Microsoft:

"The Microsoft Azure Intelligent Systems Service helps enterprises embrace the Internet of Things (IoT) by securely connecting, managing and capturing machine-generated data from a variety of sensors and devices. Watch this video to see how IoT is transforming the world’s first underground railway."



Machine Learning @ Azure



+ Microsoft Partners Learning Paths



Internet of Things: The Future of Your Business Technology | Microsoft




data: Bending iPhone 6 and other large smartphones

Consumer Reports Tests Show Apple's iPhone 6 Not As Bendy As Believed: @ Forbes

Apple Consumer Reports iPhone stress test

Friday, September 26, 2014

node.js => Go Lang

Farewell Node.js — Code adventures — Medium by TJ Holowaychuk
A story about reasons for switching to Go Lang, 
from one of most productive contributors to node.js, 
creator of Express web tool and many others used for node.js development

The Future of ExpressJS and Alternatives ♥ Scotch




Sails.js | Realtime MVC Framework for Node.js

Sails.js | Realtime MVC Framework for Node.js:

"The web framework of your dreams.
Built for developers by mermaids"
:)



"Sails is the most popular MVC framework for Node.js. It is designed for building practical, production-ready Node.js apps in a matter of weeks - not months."

ideas: 50 Cent's 50th Law

Robert Greene and 50 Cent's 50th Law - Business Insider:

"Most people think first of what they want to express or make, 

then find the audience for their idea.

You must work the opposite angle, thinking first of the public.
You need to keep your focus on their changing needs,
the trends that are washing through them. 



Beginning with their demand, you create the appropriate supply."


Stanford class: How to Start a Startup

How to Start a Startup:
"Everything we know about how to start a startup, for free, from some of the world experts.
CS183B is a class we’re teaching at Stanford. It’s designed to be a sort of one-class business course for people who want to start startups."
  • Lecture 1 - How to Start a Startup Sam Altman, President, Y Combinator Dustin Moskovitz,Cofounder, Facebook, Cofounder, Asana, Cofounder, Good Ventures 
    1. Idea 
      • "Mission"
      • "monopoly in small space, expand later"
      • "unpopular but right"
      • "need a market that will be big in 10 years"
      • "go after small but rapidly growing market, desperate for solution"
      • "why now"
      • "best to build something that you yourself need (or close customer)"
      • "idea needs to be easy to explain: clearly articulated vision with a small number of words"
      • best ideas are either very different or new from existing; "clones" with small difference usually fail
      • new ideas, potential co-founders
      • think "market first": "Beginning with their demand, you create the appropriate supply" (50 cent)
    2. Product
      • great idea => great product (service, etc.) => great company
      • great products are new to the world
      • making product "great" is most important; ignore everything else
      • make it as good as possible by taking with the users
      • "build something that users love"; talk with users
      • if people just "like" it is not enough
      • it is better to make something that only small number of users "love" that what large number of users just "like"
      • if you don't do this right, will probably fail; if you do this right, could make many other mistakes and still succeed 
      • find a small group of users and make what they really love
      • it is working if you get growth by word of mouth: people talk to their friends about what they love; this works for both enterprise and consumer products
      • if there is no "organic" growth in number of users, this is a big sign of trouble (product not good enough yet)
      • spending time on "growth" (sales/marketing) before having a great product is almost certainly wasted time
      • great products almost always win on the long run
      • start with something "simple"; it is much easier to make something simple great, then grow features later
      • "simple" is forcing you do one thing extremely well
      • "fanatical" care about quality and small details; quick responses to users feedback
      • recruit users manually, don't get random; you don't need many to start with, but you need those who give you feedback every day, improve to get them to love your product
      • listen closely to users
      • "feedback engine": show it to users => listen feedback => products decisions => repeat
      • ask the users what they like, and what they would pay, would they recommend it to their friends
      • software is great for fast feedback loop, could improve in hours
      • great founders don't put anyone between themselves and their users: do customer support yourself in early days
      • metrics: focus on growth (active users matter)
      • company will build whatever CEO decides to measure
    3. Team
    4. Execution
  • Lecture 2 - How to Start a Startup Sam Altman, President, Y Combinator
    1. Idea
    2. Product : "Make something people want" T-shirt :)
      • How to identify fast growth markets? This is one of big advantages students have, since they are the future customers, and they best know needs and preferences of their own generation. Older people need to guess about technologies that younger people are using, and younger people just need to look around and see what is needed. Follow the (young people's) instincts. 
      • How to deal with "burn out" as a founder? It sucks, and you keep going. Need to have a support network. Address challenges that are going wrong. 
      • Idea & Product need to be done right, nothing else could save you.
    3. Team
      • choosing co-founders
        • one of most important decisions for startups; conflicts leading to blow-ups
        • avoid choosing random people
        • best:  friends from college of working in same company for years
        • better to not have co-founder than bad choice; most successful startups have 2 or 3 co-founders
        • need "relentlessly resourceful": tough, decisive, calm, creative; the model is James Bond, more than an expert in a particular domain
        • at least one of co-founders has to be "technical", not managers
      • try not to hire
        • better to have less employees; stay small as long as you possibly can; early, hire only when you really need to
        • a cost of getting early hire wrong is very high
        • example airbnb, took 5 months interviewing first employee, only 2 people in the first year; list of cultural values ("would you take a job if you got only one year left to live?"); need people who believe in the company
        • culture is very important when company faces a crisis ("live in the office")
      • get the best people
        • very important and very hard; convincing that your mission is most important from what they are looking at
        • the best people know they should join "rocket ship"
        • spend 0% or 25% time on hiring 
        • "mediocre engineers do not build great companies"
        • best source for hiring: people that you already know
        • experience matters for some roles, and not for others
        • are they smart; do they get things done; do I spend a lot of time around them.
        • if you didn't work with somebody, work on a quick project together first
        • ask specifically about projects done in the past; call references, ask if the person in among top 5% of people, specifics
        • need good communication skills, determinations, risk taking attitude; "animal test", describe somebody as an animal; would you be comfortable reporting to such person
        • 10% of the company to first 10 employees
      • retaining employees
        • keep people happy and treat them fairly
        • praise people, take blame (learn management)
        • don't micromanage, delegate responsibility
        • "Autonomy", "Mastery", "Purpose" (Dan Pink)
      • fire fast
        • when almost every decision is wrong, problems
        • better for company and employee
        • avoid politics and negativity
        • smart people find role in company
        • pre-negotiate vest-in (i.e. 4 years)
    4. Execution
      • Most critical, can't outsource
      • founders define culture
      • CEO: vision, money, evangelize, hire, drive ("make sure the entire company executes")
      • Getting things done: focus & intensity
      • Focus
        • critical (what you are spending time on)
        • do only 2-3 most important things every day
        • say no, a lot
        • you get no credit for trying, only for getting things done
        • goals: a small number of overarching goals
        • communicate, keep company focused (34m)
      • Intensity

Thursday, September 25, 2014

event: Microsoft AzureConf.net 2014

Microsoft AzureConf.net 2014:

AzureConf Logo

On October 21st, 2014, Microsoft will be hosting AzureConf, another free event for the Azure community. This event will feature a keynote presentation by Scott Guthrie, along with numerous sessions executed by Azure community members

IoT: standards - O'Reilly Radar

In pursuit of universal IoT standards - O'Reilly Radar:

"The first remotely operated domestic machine — a toaster — was connected to the Internet less than a quarter-century ago, in 1990. The Internet of Things (IoT) doubled in size a year later with the addition of a coffee pot. Eventually, the Internet Engineering Task Force Network Working Group assigned the coffee pot its own specific standard, HTCPCP 1.0, the Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol, RFC 2324."
network_by_Simon_Cockell_Flickr

Free e-Book: Learning Xamarin | Jesse Liberty

Free e-Book: Learning to Master Cross-Platform Mobile Development With Xamarin | Jesse Liberty:

e-book

Windows Apps: one fee forewer

New Dev Center lifetime registration and benefits program:
"Windows Dev Center requires only a one-time registration payment, which grants developers the ability to submit apps to both the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store, with no annual renewal fee...

Each of our 600,000+ registered developers will no longer need to pay any additional fees to maintain their account."
Building Apps for Windows

TWC9: WinJS 3.0, Dev Center Lifetime Registration, the .NET Universe Poster and more | This Week On Channel 9 | Channel 9

Getting the most out of Azure in your MSDN subscription - BizSpark Australia - Site Home - MSDN Blogs


WinJS 3.0 open source

WinJS Everywhere:

JavaScript library for WinRT apps (Windows & Phone 8.1)

is now available as open source and also works with Chrome, Safari & Firefox.

A nice way to make Windows 8 UI on Android :)



WinJS: 5 Things You Need To Know About Microsoft's New Open-Source JavaScript Library - ReadWrite

person: Peter Thiel (PayPal)

Peter Thiel's Contrarian Strategy @ Fortune Magazine (cover story)

"...In 1998, Thiel co-founded the pioneering e-commerce payments company PayPal, which was sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. 

... PayPal people including at least seven now valued at more than $1 billion:"

  • Tesla TSLA -2.06% and SpaceX (co-founded by Elon Musk), 
  • LinkedIn LNKD -2.64% (Reid Hoffman), 
  • YouTube (Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim), [Google] 
  • Yelp YELP -3.49% (Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons), 
  • Yammer (David O. Sacks),  [Microsoft]
  • and the data-mining company Palantir (co-founded by Thiel himself in 2004).

Zero to One (book's web site)


Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Apress online library

More books going digital / online...
Apress Access


Funny thing that so far nobody (that I know of) took advantage of web medium
to create "interactive books", not just web version of paper books...
Similar to MOOC "lectures", most of them linear recordings of presentations...

The content could be "tuned", expanded as needed, updated to changes in technology, running tests online, machine learning to adjust...
With all this VC money, and smart people, all we get are "same old books"...
Strange...

Adam Freeman's books @ Apress

edu: Stanford OpenEdX

About OpenEdX | Stanford Online:
"OpenEdX is the open-source release of the edX platform developed by the non-profit organization founded by Harvard and MIT. In April 2013 Stanford and edX agreed to collaborate on future development of the edX platform.
...
In September 2013, Google committed to the development of OpenEdX, and to offer a hosted version of the platform, so that organizations wanting to use it will not necessarily have to install an instance of the software themselves.
...
Stanford OpenEdX is one of three platforms VPOL currently supports for delivery of digital course content. The others are Coursera and NovoEd (formerly Venture Lab). Stanford University also offers online courses through the Stanford Center for Professional Development, and makes videos available through YouTube and iTunesU."

Computer Science 101 (Self-Paced) | Stanford Online

Technology adoption lifecycle - Crossing the Chasm

Technology adoption lifecycle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:



  • innovators – had larger farms, were more educated, more prosperous and more risk-oriented
  • early adopters – younger, more educated, tended to be community leaders, less prosperous
  • early majority – more conservative but open to new ideas, active in community and influence to neighbours
  • late majority – older, less educated, fairly conservative and less socially active
  • laggards – very conservative, had small farms and capital, oldest and least educated
"The most difficult step is making the transition between visionaries (early adopters) and pragmatists (early majority). This is the chasm that he refers to. If a successful firm can create a bandwagon effect in which enough momentum builds, then the product becomes a de facto standard. However, Moore's theories are only applicable for disruptive or discontinuous innovations"


Katana Project (OWIN Web Server source)

source code of Katana Project - Home @ codeplex

"Katana is a flexible set of components for building and hosting OWIN-based web applications.
This site is the home for Katana host, server, and middleware source code and documentation. Official releases of Katana components (including prerelease versions) can be found on http://nuget.org."

(ASP.NET "embedded/stand alone" web server instead of IIS)

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

JavaScript for OS X Automation

JavaScript for OS X Automation | Hacker News:

Here is some of the new JavaScript syntax:
  Mail.outgoingMessages.whose({subject:'JavaScript'})

Here is what it looks like in AppleScript
    tell application "Mail"
        set msgs to every outgoing message whose subject is 'JavsScript'
    end tell

Apple's Biggest Announcement Yet Isn't About Phones Or Watches - Telerik Developer NetworkTelerik Developer Network

After Microsoft made JavaScript "first class" programming language for WinRT (Windows 8.x apps), now even Apple made it able to create Mac scripts / apps. 


The reactive manifesto

The reactive manifesto:

"We believe that a coherent approach to systems architecture is needed, and we believe that all necessary aspects are already recognised individually: we want systems that are:



  • Responsive, 
  • Resilient, 
  • Elastic and 
  • Message Driven. 


We call these Reactive Systems. 




Systems built as Reactive Systems are more flexible, loosely-coupled and scalable. This makes them easier to develop and amenable to change. They are significantly more tolerant of failure and when failure does occur they meet it with elegance rather than disaster. Reactive Systems are highly responsive, giving users effective interactive feedback."


ideas: Promise Theory

The promise of Promise Theory: The O'Reilly Radar Podcast - O'Reilly Radar:
"Promise theory is ... to analyze distributed systems" (vs. top-down control)

In the second segment, Geoffrey Moore talks about the technology adoption lifecycle and outlines a modern approach to his Crossing the Chasm theory.

"Promise theory is a model of voluntary cooperation between individual, autonomous actors or agents who publish their intentions to one another in the form of promises.
A promise is a declaration of intent whose purpose is to increase the recipient's certainty about a claim of past, present or future behavior."


IoT: Platform for the Internet of Things?

interesting discussion...

Inside Solid: who will build the god platform for the Internet of Things? - O'Reilly Radar:
"It’s tempting to look for analogy in mobile phone platforms, where Apple was initially dominant and now enjoys an extremely lucrative and influential minority position against Android. There are some crucial differences, though."

IoT: Huawei += UK IoT pioneer Neul - $25

Huawei snaps up UK IoT pioneer Neul - Rethink Wireless:

"Huawei has announced a deal in the latter category, paying $25m for UK-based IoT specialist Neul.

Neul (the Gaelic world for 'cloud') developed a connectivity platform called Weightless. Although initially tested in various applications, it was increasingly dedicated to IoT applications, providing the air interface for ultra-low power, spectrally efficient connections for objects such as smart meters, city lighting and many others"




Huawei’s U.S. competitors among those pushing for scrutiny of Chinese tech firm - The Washington Post



Huawei - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia




Fall Equinox – Autumnal Equinox

September equinox 2014:
September 23, at 02:29 UTC


Fall Equinox – Autumnal Equinox:
"in the northern hemisphere, the fall equinox marks the first day of fall (autumn) in what we call astronomical seasons. There's also another, more common definition of when the seasons start, namely meteorological definitions, which are based on average temperatures rather that astronomical events."

"big data of nature :)"

Illustration image

Autumn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Monday, September 22, 2014

Google 2.0 to build cities and airports

Larry Page wants a Google 2.0 that will build cities and airports, report says | The Verge:
"As if self-driving cars, balloon-carried internet, or the eradication of death weren't ambitious enough projects, Google CEO Larry Page has apparently been working behind the scenes to set up even bolder tasks for his company. The Information reports that Page started up a Google 2.0 project inside the company a year ago to look at the big challenges facing humanity and the ways Google can overcome them. Among the grand-scale plans discussed were Page's desire to build a more efficient airport as well as a model city. To progress these ideas to fruition, the Google chief has also apparently proposed a second research and development lab, called Google Y, to focus on even longer-term programs that the current Google X, which looks to support future technology and is headed up by his close ally Sergey Brin."

ideas: "Competition Is for Losers"

Peter Thiel: Competition Is for Losers - WSJ:
"If you want to create and capture lasting value, look to build a monopoly, writes Peter Thiel" (VC, co-founter of PayPal)

"...So-called perfectly competitive markets achieve equilibrium when producer supply meets consumer demand...The opposite of perfect competition is monopoly. Whereas a competitive firm must sell at the market price, a monopoly owns its market, so it can set its own prices. Since it has no competition, it produces at the quantity and price combination that maximizes its profits."

IBM: cloud, analytics, mobile, social

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty gets past the Big Blues:
Ginni’s Rules
1. Don’t protect the past.
2. Never be defined by your product.
3. Always transform yourself.

"...reinvention plan for IBM, which involves trying to get
the company to concentrate on three core area:

  • big data
  • cloud
  • engagement” (mobile and social technologies).
How does IBM make money? Big Blue's revenue dipped 5% last year, but the tech giant still raked in nearly $100 billion annually. Here's where most of that money came from.

IBM cuts pay by 10% for workers picked for training | Computerworld
"Under this program, these employees will spend one day a week developing skills in key growth areas such as cloud, analytics, mobile and social.

But IBM is coupling this training with a six month salary reduction. The key statement in the memo is this: "While you spend part of your workweek on learning and development activities, you will receive 90% of your current base salary."


IBM cuts salaries of skill laggards in US - The Times of India

Sunday, September 21, 2014

"Wired" skies of the past

Telegraph, Telephone, Electricity... Most of it is under ground now...
And thanks to "packet networks" same cables are used for multiple connections.
Will 100 years from now our struggle with networks (neutrality) look similar?
I.e. wireless spectrum is used very selectively, but  it is abundant...

Photos from the Days When Thousands of Cables Crowded the Skies:
Photos from the Days When Thousands of Cables Crowded the Skies

Photos from the Days When Thousands of Cables Crowded the Skies

Photos from the Days When Thousands of Cables Crowded the Skies

Four short links: 16 September 2014 - O'Reilly Radar








Cloud Services Pricing

Pricing Overview | Microsoft Azure


Pricing Details - Websites | Microsoft Azure:


Amazon Web Services (AWS) Pricing


Custom Price Quotes with Google Cloud Pricing Calculator

quote: "A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor”

A collection of “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor” images | A Smooth Sea:

a-smooth-sea-never-made-a-skilled-sailor-image-2



Forbes.com started injecting quotes like thin to articles on the web...

Forbes Quotes


IoT: Microsoft Windows + Intel Galileo board

Hands on with Microsoft's Internet of Things platform | CITEworld
wp 20140918 20 57 04 pro

How Microsoft thinks of wearables and smart devices | CITEworld
CPU Intel has put into the Quark system-on-a-chip (SoC) on the Galileo boards, which doesn't have the full set of instructions you'd need to run full .NET

("Quark" is "sub-Atom" :)

The potential for DIY experimenting is there, but world needs more integrated (higher abstraction level) gadgets, something like "iPod+iTunes of IoT".




IoT, eBook: The Epic Struggle of the Internet of Things

Amazon.com: The Epic Struggle of the Internet of Things eBook: Bruce Sterling: Kindle Store:

"The Internet of Things serves the interests of the technology giants, in their epic wrangles with each other. And it is they who will turn the jargon of “smart cities” and “smart homes” into a self-fulfilling prophesy. In this piercing and provocative essay, Bruce Sterling tells the story of an idea that just won’t go away because there’s too much money to be made and a whole world to control."


ML: Deep Learning Bibliography

Deep Learning Bibliography | Memkite:

"DeepLearning.University is an annotated bibliography of recent publications (2014-) related to Deep Learning"


Google Guide: "Writing Testable Code" (!)

From a creator of AngularJS, internal Google's guide now made public:



misko.hevery.com/attachments/Guide-Writing Testable Code.pdf






Thumb-phones? (iPhone 6)

How Much You'll Have to Stretch Your Thumb to Use the New iPhones:

How Much You'll Have to Stretch Your Thumb to Use the New iPhones



How Do Users Really Hold Mobile Devices? :: UXmatters



The two methods of cradling a mobile phone

Two-handed use when holding a phone vertically or horizontally


Saturday, September 20, 2014

Audi autonomous driving in California

Audi receives first autonomous driving permit in California | Digital Trends:

Audi autonomous car



Volkswagen, that Audi is part of, has worked with Stanford team that made a first breakthrough with self-driving cars. That team is now part of Google X, and may be still working with Audi. This is "real deal".

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Oracle.CEO -= Larry Ellison

Irreplaceable? Larry Ellison Steps Down From CEO Position At Oracle:
"After 37 years overseeing nearly every detail at the company he founded billionaire Larry Ellison is leaving the top job at Oracle. The long time CEO will become the chairman of Oracle’s board and the software company’s chief technology officer. Current presidents Safra Catz and Mark Hurd will take over as chief executives."

Oracle Corporation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

SalesForce $100 million IoT fund

Salesforce launches $100 million dedicated fund for internet of things | ZDNet: "Salesforce Ventures, the venture capital arm of the San Francisco-headquarted corporation, is launching a new $100 million investment fund for businesses building new mobile apps and connected products tapping into the Salesforce1 platform"

Salesforce.com adds Jawbone, Oculus Rift, smart devices to wearables platform

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

IoT: Dell Internet of Things Lab in Silicon Valley

Dell opens Internet of Things Lab in Silicon Valley - Austin Business Journal
"Dell Inc. has opened a Silicon Valley laboratory where customers can develop software to improve business operations. The facility, dubbed the Dell Internet of Things Lab, opened in the Dell Silicon Valley Solution Center in Santa Clara, "

Dell Opens Internet of Things Lab in Silicon Valley Solution Center | Dell
"...Customers can demonstrate large workloads, connectivity, and data modeling and extraction on Dell’s end-to-end solutions..."

quote: Greatness

What Makes Greatness Is Starting Something That Lives After You. | Quotesvalley.com:
What Makes Greatness Is Starting Something That Lives After You.

Tesla Model S Worth More Used Than New

Tesla Model S Worth More Used Than New:

"Based on a survey of 45 million used car listings for sale/sold in the U.S., the average used Model S is said to be going for a whopping $99,734, which is considerably richer than its model-year 2013 base price of $69,900 (or, for that matter, the top-end version’s $89,900)."

The Grand Canyon: Builders vs Nature

podcast: The Grand Canyon: Threatened By Development? | On Point with Tom Ashbrook:
"Uproar over development plans for the Grand Canyon. We go to the Navajo Nation and the Canyon floor to see what’s at stake."

Two Development Projects Threaten the Grand Canyon - NYTimes.com

Grand Canyon on the Precipice

An aerial photo of the Grand Canyon.

National Park Service calls development plans a threat to Grand Canyon - LA Times


tool: HTML, SVG => PDF

wkhtmltopdf:

"wkhtmltopdf and wkhtmltoimage are open source (LGPL) command line tools to render HTML into PDF and various image formats using the QT Webkit rendering engine. These run entirely "headless" and do not require a display or display service.
There is also a C library, if you're into that kind of thing."

alternatives:

zkwarl: Inkscape Tip: Use Inkscape on the Command-line
Inkscape - an SVG editing program.

How to programmatically convert SVG to PDF on Windows? - Stack Overflow


Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Cloud 3D Printing

3D Builder App R5 Release Enhances Design and Print Features | The Windows Blog | Channel 9:

"3D Builder Windows Store app was created to make loading, manipulating and printing 3D models easy and fun. Today, Microsoft has released a major update of 3D Builder that brings a host of new features and enhancements, including a new cloud printing partnership with 3D Systems.

"


Android Auto vs. Apple CarPlay

Car makers will offer Android Auto alongside CarPlay later this year | 9to5Mac:

"How will Google’s new ‘Android Auto’ CarPlay competitor compare? On top of opening up the SDK, unlike Apple, to messaging and audio apps, it also has a ton of support right of the bat through the Open Automotive Alliance. Following Google’s unveiling of its new Android Auto connected car platform, a long list of both new and old members of the Open Automotive Alliance have confirmed support for the new feature"

HP Project "Smart Choice"

As IBM has sold its (x86) server division to Lenovo, HP is using the opportunity to advertise its commitment to partners...



On the other side, the future of x86 is much less certain, given that ARM is supported by all major OSs, including Windows. ARM is slower, but is likely more power efficient: a big advantage for cloud servers also...



IBM x86 Servers and Lenovo? - Project Smart Choice - x86 server replacement | HP® Official Site:

"HP is a strategic partner that delivers foresight, stability, and depth end to end — keeping your enterprise ready for the workloads of tomorrow."




Monday, September 15, 2014

Google Cloud Computing: $500 off

Cloud Computing:
"$500 in Google Cloud Platform credit to launch your idea!
The Cloud Platform Starter Pack gives developers from affiliated partners $500 in credit to get started building"


Saturday, September 13, 2014

The Internet of Things (IoT) | Mouser

The Internet of Things (IoT) | Mouser:

Intel Internet of Things Graphic

IoT: Graphene And The Internet of Things

Cloud Infographic - Graphene And The Internet of Things - CloudTweaks.com:

European Union’s Future and Emerging Technologies or FET announced its $2.3 billion grant. The mission of the program was to enhance new technological solutions based on graphene.


graphene-emerging-tech

How Apple Pay works

Clover Developers Blog: How Apple Pay works and why it matters for developers:





Apple - iPhone 6 - Apple Pay






Google Knowledge Vault

Google Knowledge Vault:
"Google works on supplementing Knowledge Graph with a new database called Knowledge Vault. While Knowledge Graph uses information from a list of trusted sources, Knowledge Vault gathers data from the entire Web."

Google's 'Knowledge Vault' seeks the answer to life, the universe and everything @ engadget

KDD Retro: Google Knowledge Vault and Topic Modeling — URX Blog

tool: RunSwift - Try Swift in the Browser

RunSwift - Try Swift in the Browser

RunSwift allows you to try Apple's Swift programming language from within the browser. While you cannot import abitrary modules, a small subset of Foundation is included.




MOOC: English course, 100,000 students

BBC News - Online English course attracts 100,000 students:

It is the British Council's first experiment with so-called Moocs, or massive open online courses, which deliver tuition free of charge.

LearnEnglish | British Council






The MOOC Revolution That Wasn’t

The MOOC Revolution That Wasn’t | TechCrunch
"Three years ago this week, Sebastian Thrun recorded his Stanford class on Artificial Intelligence, released it online to a staggering 180,000 students, and started a “revolution in higher education.” 

Soon after, Coursera, Udacity and others promised free access to valuable content, supposedly delivering a disruptive solution that would solve massive student debt and a struggling economy. Since then, over 8 million students have enrolled in their courses.

This year, that revolution fizzled. Only half of those who signed up watched even one lecture, and only 4 percent stayed long enough to complete a course. Further, the audience for MOOCs alreadyhad college degrees so the promise of disrupting higher education failed to materialize."

U2 + iTunes = free :)

U2 Releases First Studio Album in 5 Years at Apple Event — It's Free @ mashable
"In an unconventional music deal, Bono and the band are teaming up with the tech giant to release new material, U2's first studio album in five years. U2 announced the album,Songs of Innocence, Tuesday after performing "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)." Then, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Bono released it for free on iTunes, only for Apple until October 13."

26 U2 Albums Hit iTunes Top Albums Chart at Once After Apple Stunt
"U2's surprise free album on iTunes was ridiculed by some iPhone users for forcing its way onto their devices this week, but U2 is having the last laugh as the Apple stunt for the band's new Songs of Innocence inspired fans to purchase other U2 titles on iTunes."

U2 - Songs of Innocence 2014 - YouTube


Friday, September 12, 2014

Michio Kaku on Singularity

Michio Kaku on Singularity 1 on 1: Science is the Engine of Prosperity!:
Famous physicists and promoter of the science
now created a book about the brain! Very interesting interview.


Around 24:00: "Physics is underlying everything" :)

Amazon.com: The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind (9780385530828): Michio Kaku: Books