Skip to content
Theme : enterprise
-
The benefits of physics
The Institute of Physics have released a report on the importance of Physics Based Industries (PBIs) to the UK economy. Apparently, 1.7 million Britains are employed in PBIs, and their success is strongly based on clustering, networking and association with universities.
from : alistairdavidson
12th March 2003
-
2b or not 2b thats ?
Continuing the literature theme... BBC News Online are having a bit of fun wondering what the classics might look like in txt. This is my favourite:"With SINCERE apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson:0.5a leag 0.5a leag0.5a leag onwrdAll in T valy o DthRd T 600"^ T LB!"Chrg 4T gns" he sdIn2 T valy o DthRd T 600"But is predictive text cutting short a linguistic revolution?Read on here.
from : paulmiller
4th March 2003
-
Watch out for word bursts
Interesting article about some new research on 'word bursts' in New Scientist. This is basically collecting data about the frequency with which words are used."...the method could be applied to weblogs to track new social trends. For example, identifying word bursts in the hundreds of thousands of personal diaries now on the web could help advertisers quickly spot an emerging craze."I've been thinking about adding a similar feature to the Greenhouse to give us some idea about our own...
from : paulmiller
20th February 2003
-
Leading UK Thinker - John Kay
John Kay is an academic, author and journalist, writing provocatively on subjects such as regulation and business strategy. His most important work has been part of a wider trend in economics taking into account social reality and human nature. He argues that the failure of much conventional economics has been its irrelevance to the market it was supposed to represent.Read his articles hereOr read about his latest book 'The Truth About Markets'
from : alistairdavidson
18th February 2003
-
Google's playground
Nobody can quite beat Google for innovative tools for the web. But they do far more than just the simple web search that we all use every day. This is a link to their Labs page which shows some of the things that they're developing - Google Sets and Google Webquotes are definitely worth a look.Google Labs
from : paulmiller
18th February 2003
-
Mickey isn't happy
Copyright isn't always seen as the most thrilling policy area, but when you're talking about Mickey Mouse it all comes to life. Take this (spoof) interview with the world's favourite rodent on the decision in the US supreme court to uphold the extension on Disney's copyright on Steamboat Willy. I reckon it would be good to get a debate going about the relationship between creativity and copyright - what do you think?Read the interview here.
from : paulmiller
17th February 2003
-
Many minds make light work
Mark Ward has an interesting article on BBC News Online about using online collaboration to solve problems. He takes Collective Detective as an example, a community using collective power to solve problems in computer games. Also links to Howard Rheingold's Smart Mobs."Online communities that band together to solve puzzles could provide clues to the next big step in social development."Read the article here.
from : paulmiller
10th February 2003
-
The Power of Larry
As he admits himself, 'My brand is pessimism'. He warns of the impending doom of an internet that is controlled by the content industries (music, film, software etc) to the extent that 'fair use' of material controlled by copyright will be 'no use'. He argues that the big companies have successfully lobbied to create layers of legal (such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and technical (like Digital Rights Management software) protection for their content which have dire consequences...
from : paulmiller
6th February 2003
-
Risk and the space shuttle
Following our interesting discussion in the inaugural Thursday seminar about the costs and benefits of manned space flight, read this article about the emerging technology of probabilistic risk assessment"In 1995, these tools helped a NASA consultant estimate the risk of a catastrophic space shuttle failure at 1 in 145, or about 0.7 percent, for each mission. NASA accepted that risk."
from : pauljoseph
6th February 2003
-
Onward and Outward
The space debate continues in the New York Times with Thomas Mallon calling for more ambition:"One can hardly think bigger than they do in this program, the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project, which admits that star exploration will never be accomplished without moving entirely beyond the physics of rocket propulsion. With its musings on worm holes and warp drives - potential ways and means to the stars - the program is a small brainstorm within the vast regimentation of NASA, a sort of...
from : paulmiller
5th February 2003
