Last month, famed inventor, entrepreneur and futurist, Ray Kurwzeil, announced that he was joining Google as a director of engineering. Many have wondered what Kurzweil’s new position would mean for Google and the billions of people its global reach directly or indirectly touches. Would they be uploading Kurzweil’s brain into their datacenters? Become the next Skynet?
Speaking at an event at… → Read More
Just when you think that we’ve innovated all that we can, something new comes along and completely blows our mind. It could be an advancement in hardware, software or just a new way of thinking of things. Humans are pretty resilient when it comes to thinking up new things to tinker with and making our lives easier. This year was pretty awesome when it comes to innovation, and not the… → Read More
On stage at the second-day keynote, Major General Robert Wheeler talked about the changing role of industry and enterprise as it relates to technological innovation, and how where once the military led in that department, now the vast majority of advances are being driven by advances made in the private sector. And that means the DoD is in a position of asking for help from a variety of sources. → Read More
If you get the opportunity to hear Clayton Christensen hold court, seize it. Speaking at BoxWorks in San Francisco today, Christensen was characteristically soft-spoken, self-deprecating and good-humored, even prompting Ron Miller to describe him as “the Steven Wright of business research” and the anti-Aaron Levie. → Read More
Chris Hawker, the founder of Trident Design, LLC, has over 20 years of experience developing and commercializing his own and others’ inventions. His most famous product, the PowerSquid, was the subject of a six-part series published in TechCrunch called the Song of the PowerSquid.
As the president/founder of Trident Design, LLC, I’ve been inventing and commercializing products for 18… → Read More
Bob Compton and I finally have something to agree about.
The Washington, D.C.–based venture capitalist produced a provocative documentary, 2 Million Minutes, which tracked six students—two each in the U.S., India, and China—during their senior year of high school. It showed the Indian and Chinese students slogging to learn mathematics and science, and the Americans partying and playing… → Read More
A few months ago, I wrote about why I believed that Russia’s planned “science city” was destined for failure, in my BusinessWeek column. I predicted it would follow the path of the hundreds of cluster development projects before it. Political leaders would hold press conferences to claim credit for advancing science and technology; management consultants would earn hefty fees; real-estate… → Read More
So far, an estimated 82 million gallons of oil have leaked into the Gulf of Mexico. Everything BP has tried to stop the largest oil spill in history has failed. The company has tried everything from “junk shots” to “top kill” to containment domes, and is still spending $100 million a day to try to cap the well and clean up the mess. The company is even open to suggestions.
Whether they are… → Read More
Last week I met Gever Tulley, author of the provocatively-titled “Fifty Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do.” The book grew out of a 2007 TED talk about why embracing and exploring danger ultimately lessens it. (See! Good things do come out of TED. Let the TED-TechCrunch healing begin!) The book doesn’t advocate playing in traffic, but it does extol the virtues of things like… → Read More
There’s an interesting and thought provoking essay at BetaNews by Joe Wilcox entitled “Why former employees say Microsoft can’t innovate”. It’s a rather myopic examination of the middle-management woes and culture of job protectionism that is harming Microsoft’s ability to truly create. Microsoft has grown a lot in the last couple years, and they’re up to almost 100,000 employees now. Any company… → Read More
Yesterday, I attended the Churchill Club‘s program addressing “The Innovation Economy: R&D and a Crisis.” The panelists included Josephine Chang, an IBM Fellow and Vice President of IBM Almaden Research Center; renowned innovation expert and former Cisco CTO Judy Estrin; Rick Rashid, a senior vice president of research at Microsoft; VC executive Sue Siegel, a partner at Mohr… → Read More
Steve Ballmer, in a move not exactly challenging Microsoft’s unfortunate reputation as a bloated, last-generation software developer paralyzed by inertia, criticized Intel for focusing on multiple cores — a strategy Ballmer says “mandates and necessitates ongoing OS innovation.” Oh, no! Oh good heavens! What will we do? Design our OS that reflects (or influences!) the… → Read More
Japanese companies Gunze and Dai Nippon Printing are each developing new technologies that make it possible to produce low-cost, pigment-sensitized solar cells. Gunze focuses on low-end solar cells that can be used to power smaller electronic appliances or in-store ad displays, for example. Their cells will use a film, which is coated with special pigments, as a power source. Gunze, actually a… → Read More
Yeah… I see syringes and eyeballs and I just cringe. I don’t care what it’s for. I don’t care that it’s a good idea. I don’t care that this process will save money, time and get proper eyewear to those that need it. I see syringes and eyeballs. I don’t even wear contacts. The thought of sticking a finger in my eye on purpose sounds like the most gawd-awful idea ever. I’m against… → Read More
[photopress:siafu.jpg,full,center] Hopefully you’ve all seen Batman Begins, otherwise the following explanation won’t make any sense. Remember when Morgan Freeman was showing Christian Bale around Wayne’s gadget basement or whatever it was called? And he showed him the material that Batman’s cape was made? Like, it’s flexible like any fabric, but once you run a charge… → Read More
I’m a certified bag nut. I seem to acquire them everywhere and frequently have to purge my collection to make space for actual possessions — otherwise I’d just be carrying around bags in larger bags (it’s happened before). That said, I’m distinctly aware of pack-efficiency. The more they can carry, the better, as long as the size doesn’t expand. There is… → Read More
Ever notice how the fancier electronics get, the less productive they become? Yea me too, and it’s a problem. Sure that 16,000 function cell phone/PDA/radiation detector/meteor deflector/oral hygiene device looks cool, but do you really need all of that crap? The answer is no, you don’t. And I’ll tell you why. → Read More
Ever wish you could invent something that could change the world? Twenty teams of high schoolers from around the country are living that dream. Each team has received a grant (up to $10,000) from the Lemelson-MIT Program to take their inventions from concept to finished product. One of the ideas I really like is the fire-fighting grenade by Acton-Boxborough Regional High School (Acton, MA). The… → Read More
In 150 years, our time won’t be remembered as the time of converting to green and renewable resources. It won’t be remembered as the time when the Internet first became totally ubiquitous and pervasive. It won’t be remembered as the time we let slutty, bratty heiresses out of jail for breaking the same laws that landed others behind bars. No, reader, our time will be remembered… → Read More
We love gadgets with touchscreens. That’s a fact. Capacitive touch is the mysterious tech behind the iPod’s scrollwheel, the touchpad on your laptop, and pretty much anything you control with just touch. One hurdle the technology has had to face is that only certain materials could handle recording of X/Y grid movements, the secret to using it as a real input method. InfiniTouch, part… → Read More
It’s no Clocky, but this alarm clock innovates in a way that’s charming in and of itself. Rather than just having an annoying buzzer, not unlike the sound of creeping death to wake you up, it has a big, red, flashing light. Put it close enough to you and the pulsing redness is supposed to do enough to wake you, and only you, up. And yes, it also has an annoying buzzer. I like it… → Read More
Now that I know I can’t say anything bad about Apple, it gives me great pride to say that BusinessWeek just proclaimed Apple the most innovative company for the year 2007. All hail Steve Jobs, who makes only $1 in salary per year because he’s so generous. With the iPod now having achieved “Q-Tip”-like penetration and a streaming media solution (which have never existed in… → Read More
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