The Future is unknown to most...but not to...

courtenaybird: Women At Work: Sound Bytes, Statistics Of Women...

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 08:20:21 +1000

courtenaybird:

Women At Work: Sound Bytes, Statistics Of Women Who Lead

Tumbled on TumTum ♻

http://www.yrftr.com/post/20165400667/wind-turbine-generates-energy-floating-350-feet

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 22:05:30 +1100

http://www.yrftr.com/post/20165400667/wind-turbine-generates-energy-floating-350-feet:

futurescope:

Wind turbine generates energy floating 350 feet off the ground

Trials have just been finished on a new kind of wind turbine — an inflated, helium shell containing traditional blades that floats in the air stream. The airborne turbine is designed to capture stronger, high-altitude winds to provide a clean, portable and power energy option.

In the recent tests held in Limestone, Maine, a 35-foot scale version of the turbine was shown to generate more than twice as much power at high altitude than generated at conventional tower heights.

The Altaeros Airborne Wind Turbine (AWT) is transported to its location by a towable, docking trailer. The AWT is then deployed — in this trial some 350 feet above the ground — and held in place by tethers which also send the electricity generated back to the ground. Raising, operating and lowering the turbine was successfully completed a in fully automated cycle. […]

[more]

ilovecharts: Whoa.

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:29:49 +1100

ilovecharts:

Whoa.

courtenaybird: Facebook Helps Get One in Five People Worldwide...

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:48:42 +1100

courtenaybird:

Facebook Helps Get One in Five People Worldwide Socializing on Online Networks

"Amazon calculated that a page load slowdown of just 1 second could cost it $1.6 billion in sales..."

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:47:52 +1100

“Amazon calculated that a page load slowdown of just 1 second could cost it $1.6 billion in sales each year. Google has calculated that by slowing its search results by just four tenths of a second they could lose 8 million searches per day—meaning they’d serve up many millions fewer online adverts.”

- via Fast Company (via courtenaybird)

Military Wants to Implant Tiny 'Doctors' in Soldiers' Bodies

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:52:09 +1100

Military Wants to Implant Tiny 'Doctors' in Soldiers' Bodies:

infoneer-pulse:

Disease has stalked battlefields since the dawn of war and continues to plague even the ranks of the modern U.S. military. That’s why the Pengaton’s scientists want to implant tiny particles inside the bodies of soldiers that could diagnose or even treat illness from within.

The military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced its vision for implantable “nanosensors” on March 15. Such tiny sensors would be based on nanoparticles thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair — a watchful swarm of molecules inside soldiers’ bodies that could monitor their health around the clock and keep them healthy on the most remote battlefields.

» via Live Science

Internet Accounts for 4.7% of the U.S. Economy

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:50:59 +1100

Internet Accounts for 4.7% of the U.S. Economy:

infoneer-pulse:

The Internet accounts for 4.7% of the U.S. economy and is projected to grow 6.5% a year through 2016, according to a new report.

The Boston Consulting Group took a look at the top 20 global economies — also known as the “G-20″ — and found lots of reason for optimism. On average, the Internet economy is expected to grow 10.8% for the G-20. However, the expansion in developed countries like the U.S. will be on the low end, around 8%, while developing countries like Argentina and India will expand at rates of 24% and 23%, respectively, according to the report.

» via Mashable

http://horizonwatching.tumblr.com/post/19625720814

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 07:01:20 +1100

http://horizonwatching.tumblr.com/post/19625720814:

horizonwatching:

“Fifty seven percent of companies who invest in social business outperform their peers. They see real business value, whether it’s a 25% increase in business or a 20% drop in the time it takes to manage projects”

—
Quote found on IBM’s Social business website and comes from a white paper on Social Business titled: “Social business: the advent of a new age”

http://courtenaybird.com/post/19630170289/cook-reiterated-that-despite-selling-37-million

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 06:48:58 +1100

http://courtenaybird.com/post/19630170289/cook-reiterated-that-despite-selling-37-million:

courtenaybird:

“Cook reiterated that despite selling 37 million iPhones between October and December, that total made up just 9 percent of all handsets sold in the world. The number of handsets ‘is expected to grow to 2 billion in 2015,’ he said. ‘The potential for iPhone is enormous.’”

—
With dividend, Tim Cook thinks differently about Apple

http://www.thefuturesagency.com/post/19620342683/mediafuturist-us-consumers-lead-the-world

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:59:18 +1100

http://www.thefuturesagency.com/post/19620342683/mediafuturist-us-consumers-lead-the-world:

futuresagency:

mediafuturist:

US consumers lead the world trend, here, surely, but this is happening everywhere: Speed and Nowness are 2 trends that are changing the way we live, buy, create, communicate (and not always for the better, either). Read what I have said about these trends why these links: http://gerd.fm/nowandhere Found via my futurist buddy Stowe Boyd

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The 'ME'dia Generation: The Top 5 Sites Visited While Watching TV

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:53:45 +1100

The 'ME'dia Generation: The Top 5 Sites Visited While Watching TV:

briansolis:

In Nielsen’s U.S. Digital Consumer Report, we were given a glimpse of the extent consumers are connected while watching TV.

The world’s greatest attention magnet now meets the world’s coolest digital water cooler.What’s clear is that connected consumers are also seasoned multi-taskers. When…

http://emergentfutures.tumblr.com/post/19385312045/thenextweb-the-chart-produced-by-china-based

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:59:25 +1100

http://emergentfutures.tumblr.com/post/19385312045/thenextweb-the-chart-produced-by-china-based:

emergentfutures:

thenextweb:

The chart, produced by China-based SEO and Web design agency Them [via Resonance China], serves up a batch of impressive statistics and facts relating to the country’s ecommerce, search and social media spaces – each of which is dominated by strong local players. (via Ecommerce, Search and Social Media in China by the Numbers)

http://emergentfutures.tumblr.com/post/19251759889/smarterplanet-forget-3g-and-4g-terahertz-could

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:29:19 +1100

http://emergentfutures.tumblr.com/post/19251759889/smarterplanet-forget-3g-and-4g-terahertz-could:

emergentfutures:

smarterplanet:

Forget 3G and 4G, terahertz could make cell phones 1,000 times faster | BGR.com

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh announced that they have discovered a means of wirelessly transmitting data thousands of times faster than current standards, PCMag reported on Wednesday. The team is led by Hrvoje Petek, a physics and chemistry professor at the university, who has theoretically found a way to transmit data between devices in the terahertz frequency. Petek’s discovery of “a physical basis for terahertz bandwidth” could potentially be used to leverage the “portion of the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared and microwave light” and transmit data at rates 1,000 times faster than today’s wireless standards, which are limited to the gigahertz frequency. “The ability to modulate light with such a bandwidth could increase the amount of information carried by more than 1,000 times when compared to the volume carried with today’s technologies,” Petek said. “Needless to say, this has been a long-awaited discovery in the field.”

Read

Mobile Payment Revolution Continues With The IPad Cash Register From Square

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:25:24 +1100

Mobile Payment Revolution Continues With The IPad Cash Register From Square :

singularitarian:

Makers of mobile credit card reader, Square, have taken the next logical step. Not only can your iPad become a credit card reader, it can become a cash register now too.

The fast-growing startup has developed an app, Square Register, to go along with their card reader. More than just payment processing software, Square Register offers versatility that comes with being an iPad app. Customers can pay with credit card or cash, and regular customers can leave their wallets at home and pay simply by giving their name. Merchants can organize their items by adding names, photos and prices. Customers complete the sale by signing the iPad with their finger. Unlike conventional registers, Square Register also comes with analytics that merchants can login to from anywhere and view their transaction details.

A Fuel Cell That Cleans Water and Makes Electricity—Simultaneously

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 07:19:59 +1100

A Fuel Cell That Cleans Water and Makes Electricity—Simultaneously:

singularitarian:

Microorganisms are multitalented. The same kinds of bacteria used in wastewater treatment plants can also generate small amounts of electricity. But these two abilities have rarely been combined so cleverly.

World's Fastest, Most Precise 3-D Printer: 5 Meters/Second, 100 Nanometers at a time

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 08:06:59 +1100

World's Fastest, Most Precise 3-D Printer: 5 Meters/Second, 100 Nanometers at a time :

joshbyard:

Printing three dimensional objects with very fine details using two-photon lithography can now be achieved orders of magnitude faster than similar devices in a breakthrough by Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) researchers.

The 3D printing process uses a liquid resin, which is hardened at precisely the correct spots by a focused laser beam. The focal point of the laser beam is guided through the resin by movable mirrors and leaves behind a hardened line of solid polymer a few hundred nanometers wide.

This fine resolution enables the creation of intricately structured sculptures as tiny as a grain of sand. “Until now, this technique used to be quite slow”, says Professor Jürgen Stampfl from the Institute of Materials Science and Technology at the TU Vienna. “The printing speed used to be measured in millimeters per second — our device can do five meters in one second.” In two-photon lithography, this is a world record.

This progress was made possible by combining several new ideas. “It was crucial to improve the steering mechanism of the mirrors,” says Jan Torgersen (TU Vienna). The mirrors are continuously in motion during the printing process. The acceleration and deceleration-periods have to be tuned very precisely to achieve high-resolution results at a record-breaking speed.

(via unexpectedtech)

http://curiositycounts.com/post/19170043044/the-fatal-misconception-behind-brainstorming-is

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:39:42 +1100

http://curiositycounts.com/post/19170043044/the-fatal-misconception-behind-brainstorming-is:

curiositycounts:

“The fatal misconception behind brainstorming is that there is a particular script we should all follow in group interactions. The lesson of Building 20 is that when the composition of the group is right—enough people with different perspectives running into one another in unpredictable ways—the group dynamic will take care of itself. All these errant discussions add up. In fact, they may even be the most essential part of the creative process. Although such conversations will occasionally be unpleasant—not everyone is always in the mood for small talk or criticism—that doesn’t mean that they can be avoided. The most creative spaces are those which hurl us together. It is the human friction that makes the sparks.”

—
Groupthink | The Brainstorming As A Myth
The New Yorker

"Everyone’s talking about the importance of engaging employees, and the Facebook generation and..."

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:47:28 +1100

“Everyone’s talking about the importance of engaging employees, and the Facebook generation and collaboration tools. All of that is garbage… collaboration is a culture. It’s not a set of tools.”

- Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst | We Are Social (via courtenaybird)

Experienced the same thing when I was hawking CRM tools. Companies bought the tools thinking they would improve their customer relationships, but did nothing to establish a culture of customer service, which is a totally self-defeating and expensive mistake. If you are not changing the culture, then there is no tool you can buy or build that is going to improve engagement, whether it is with customers or employees.

"Culture isn’t just one aspect of the game, it IS the game. In the end, an organization is nothing..."

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 22:26:52 +1100

“Culture isn’t just one aspect of the game, it IS the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value. Vision, strategy or marketing can set you on the right path and carry you for a while, but no enterprise will succeed over the long haul if those elements aren’t part of its DNA.”

- Louis Gerstner, ex-Ceo of IBM

http://emergentfutures.tumblr.com/post/19101523366/once-you-break-down-the-old-rules-its-all

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 17:17:57 +1100

http://emergentfutures.tumblr.com/post/19101523366/once-you-break-down-the-old-rules-its-all:

emergentfutures:

“Once you break down the old rules, it’s all digital and you can start doing cool stuff like a money mashup. We’re not just taking the existing analog form of payment and moving it to a device, we’re fundamentally changing what it means to be in control of money.”

—
Anuj Nayar, PayPal | PayPal poised to unveil redesigned digital wallet at SXSW (via courtenaybird)