January 2012
1 post
1 tag
teachers will soon be celebrities
That technology is changing the way we think of education is a fact that few can deny, especially in 2012. As we look ahead 10 years from now, one potential implication of the use of technology and the break-down of traditional institutions of learning, such as universities, could be the emergence of the superstar teacher.
What do I mean by the superstar (or celebrity) teacher?
Imagine for a...
December 2011
2 posts
Mark Pagel on collective cultural evolution, and... →
This is a very interesting talk by an evolutionary biologist, where he starts from the beginning of life itself and weaves a story through to our current state of culture and how ideas flow.
There are several pieces of the talk that are worth taking a moment to appreciate. Here are a couple excerpts.
here he explains humans versus chimpanzees:
One way to put this in perspective is to say...
November 2011
1 post
“Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness.”
– That’s Frank Gehry. The famed architect will take the stage at #ThinkFest this weekend, and we’ve got an opportunity to ask him one question. But we’d rather that come from you! So we ask: Do you have a question we can pass along to Frank Gehry? Tell us w/ a reblog or on Twitter w/ hashtag...
October 2011
1 post
3 tags
Mentors
I often find myself deeply confused and unclear about navigating life and career decisions. These may range from simple things such as whether to take on a project at work?, or broader questions such as what geography do I want to be in 10 years from now?
No matter what the question, it is quite challenging to step outside of one’s own bubble and see the forest from the trees. What makes...
August 2011
1 post
3 tags
June 2011
3 posts
3 tags
“Congratulations on the new library, because it isn’t just a library. It is...”
– Isaac Asimov to future patrons of a library in Troy, Michigan on 16 March 1971
(I came across it on a BoingBoing post by Cory Doctorow on June 3, 2011)
4 tags
College costs twice as much as it did 10 years ago
Earlier today, I started to wonder how expense it has become to go to college these days. As Mona and I were chatting, we conjectured that the increases were tiny if we were to consider cumulative inflation over the same period.
Best way to find out was to dig into the data, so here we go:
Chart 1: Tuition fees data from Virginia Tech & UC Berkeley
Well, it is pretty interesting to see...
May 2011
14 posts
1 tag
GeoCoding IP Address data using Hadoop + Python + Dumbo « on various things …: http://disq.us/21bjga
cool story of how @everyblock helped neighbors catch a flasher http://t.co/2gRTsPM #local #content #engagement cc @quova
dating apps with location awareness are a recipe for disaster #privacy #nightmare (thoughts leading up to #pii2011)
RT @jeremycrane: I am baffled by startups targeting other startups as a primary customer, people they don’t have any money yet either!
“The power of small wins” http://on.news.me/mNruSh via @stephengillett exactly how i operate, especially on ambitious projects #execution
1 tag
What people want (by Seth Godin) →
loving @newsdotme to the point where I want a web-interface too (beyond the daily email, and awesome iPad app) #futureofnewsconsumption
very pragmatic approach to “How To Find Your Next Great Idea” http://on.news.me/iENEoL via @robgo
the “Can you locate me now” panel at PII 2011 should be relevant given recent events; you can follow along http://t.co/jNVFnrK cc @quova
string of NFC news today …Google & Foursquare http://t.co/OHJv4TO and then Hashable http://t.co/ZdMaK8H
where you go to school matters … “The ‘Facebook Class’ Built Apps, and Fortunes” http://nyti.ms/kz3bSX #stanford #courses
Good perspective from @om on incubators, especially how things panned out the last time around http://t.co/TfHJsTV
+1 to that “@rsarver: Priority Inbox has given me back so much productivity. Thanks @Gmail team!” #email #ftw
April 2011
5 posts
2 tags
my sense of loss at the demise of bookstores
Many would say the writing is on the wall for physical bound books, and business models that rely on them. As Amazon recently reported to their shareholders the rate at which ebook sales are supplanting print books. The revelation that Barnes & Nobles is up for sale and prior news that Borders is seeking bankruptcy protection mark a watershed moment in the beginning of the end of the...
2 tags
excited about the Data 2.0 conference on Monday (April 4), you can follow the livestream here http://t.co/OkRtRcR @data2con cc @quova
Excellent effort by NYC to prop local startups to leverage govt data http://v.zite.com/fWlPfd via @Ziteapp
March 2011
14 posts
RT @dkhare: Nice comparison of equivalent websites in US & India. What’s On(line) In India? http://t.co/wgDGJ2B via @adanie2
loved the @inkling textbooks application, definitely one of the futures of textbooks and interactive learning ! #education #next #iPad
2 tags
2 tags
“the real reward for the labor of measurement is not greater accuracy, but the...”
– James Clark Maxwell.
(paraphrased from the Prologue in Manjit Kumar’s book titled Quantum)
“Something Ventured” chronicles a critical ingredient of how the tech industry came about. you must watch it !!! definitely a collectable
super excited to hear about broadcastr (voice stories tied to place) from @scottlindenbaum @broadcastr #sxsw
at Signal conf in Austin @johnbattelle says “Location is the most important signal on the Internet since search”, we @quova concur #fmsignal
moral hazard ? http://t.co/2fbm0DV #goldman #sachs #facebook
Plancast has an awesome event guide for SXSW check it out here http://t.co/zQ2fbII #kudos #sxsw
talking about cookies and user data at IAB annual leadership meeting in Palm Springs http://t.co/e7gk8sV #IABALM
February 2011
4 posts
great perspective by Max Levchin about perils of being (or going) a public company especially for R&D driven businesses http://t.co/l3A31Zt
Rethinking publicness
over the past several weeks, a basic question has been hovering in my conscience.
what is the impact of the information and content I share over social networks?
who reads these updates, and what are their interpretations of them. when was the last time I saw any one of these people, have I ever met some of the subscribers (or information grazers) ? what will happen when I meet someone who...
January 2011
1 post
November 2010
1 post
my next stop - Quova
Over the past 5 years, I have had a simple mission of enabling location awareness on the web.
At Virginia Tech, we built an early version of a location awareness platform using WiFi that culminated in a few Windows Mobile apps and my masters thesis. The basic conclusions were that application developers dont care about how you sense location, they care about location itself and context about...
October 2010
2 posts
network operators need evolutionary innovation in...
(this post was sparked by a recent article about a speech given by the CTO of Ericsson, Hakan Eriksson at the 4G World conference in Chicago)
Network operators have been dealing with tremendous growth in bandwidth requirements for most part of this decade with a constant cry for new business models and ways to be compensated for the increase. I know that this is the crux of the Net Neutrality...
Tying it all together - the end game of present...
As silicon valley goes about disrupting one industry after another, it has at this point in time, laid it’s sights on the combined fuzz of commerce, social networks, mobility, and payments.
In the quest of the holy grail for a system that understands consumers and anticipates their likes and dislikes across several dimensions, a group of companies are at the precipice of a massive ...