Time You Spend Grocery Shopping

Hardly a statistical view.  But some interesting comments.  I spend much more than the suggested seventeen minutes, but I am a foodie.  Lots of discussion of cause oriented shopping, which I avoid.

Re-Examining Google

Danny Sullivan revisits his excellent 25 Things I hate about Google.  Five years after the original article.  I read that original article, and it made me think about the process of search and what I was really being provided, and not provided,  when I use Google search.  The first several gripes, like those covering the presentation of results, are particularly on point.  There are now always too many results.  Worth looking at again.  The article covers only the Google tools he uses, and there are too many now to cover well.

Is Telephoning Over?

In the NYT Fashion and Style section:  Don’t Call Me, I Won’t Call You.   Have we reached a new social and cultural change?   I do seem to get fewer voice messages too.  Generational and permanent, or just an option that will always be there?   I do like to hear the voice of people I feel close to, text is not enough.  Perhaps generational as well. 

Interdisciplinary Computing Blog

Interdisciplinary Computing Blog. by Lisa C. Kaczmarczyk. Brought to my attention recently.  In particular an article on earthquake preparation and response and the importance of computing as it is used in cultural anthropology.  Since computing is now used in every aspect of business and science, you could say that this is obvious.   Yet I like the more detailed description of how computing can be used specifically in each area, and how particular advances can help.  Look forward to more articles.

High Memory Tags

It used to be a feature of RFID tags that they contained very small amounts of data, with the tag acting as a link to data sources.  Yet there appears to be an increase of high memory tags, containing multiple kilobytes of self-contained data, that contain, for example,  historical data about what they are attached to.   Here the example is aircraft parts.

Hacking into Cars

In Technology Review:  Hacking into cars wirelessly.  More holes in the infrastructure.

Telehealth

Good piece in Fast Company on Telehealth.  Which seems to say that it is effective to use remote sensors and expertise to deliver health.   I further think that the use of sensors integrated in simple, consumer owned and friendly devices like smartphones can make this easier and more pervasive. 

Green Goose Sensors

In Engadget:  A set of sensors that can monitor many aspects of your life, like exercise, then award you with experience points, compete with others, etc.

Corning's Glass House

We developed a 'Home of the Future' back in  '00 .... and have always been interested how the home would evolve to integrate internet technologies. 

We saw Phillips efforts in this area, which used mirrors to display online information.  A mirror in our bathroom displayed makeup options.  A medicine cabinet showed the status of your prescriptions.  A talk with a office furniture company showed how the sides of an office could be used as displays. In the den your grandchildren's pictures are displayed in picture frames and continually updated. In the kitchen a refrigerator display shows the latest scores and tells you whats in the frig via RFID tags and cameras.

A friend sends me this recent video which shows Corning's view of a complete home of the future, using glass displays and surfaces.  It is very sexy, lots of clear glass displays that can be anywhere.  In the walls,  tables, anywhere.   They can also be pulled out, adjusted placed anywhere for your convenience. Check out the video above for their view.

Very nice, very impressive, very flexible.  But to actually integrate all of this in the walls and infrastructure of a home is expensive and complex.  Do I want to embed a technology into a home that has a lifetime of 18 months to two years, and then soon replace it?  Probably makes more sense to have a number of wireless iPad style displays throughout the home that I can move and update as needed.  Corning's view is not for the ordinary house for some time.

Bam Analytics

I have been looking for a good App to run site analytics on mobile.  I found BAM Analytics, which the reviews claimed worked well for Running Google Analytics on the IPhone.  At first it repeatedly crashed, but after an update today, it is now working reliably. Does most of what the laptop version does and lets you tailor analyses.  Nicely done. 

Converging Disciplines in Analytics

In SASCom, a review of a talk with  Tom Davenport's  on converging analytics disciplines, at Predictive Analytics World.  Largely obvious, seems correct overall,  worth looking at. Analytics is booming everywhere. More on Davenport in this blog.

Unilever Augments Reality in a London Train Station

An intriguing experiment with augmented reality ideas by consumer goods giant Unilever.   Seems mostly stunt-like but probably got lots of local attention. This does not appear to utilize any devices owned by the consumer.   We experimented in the lab with a system called Reactrix that had similar goals, but later went backrupt.  See also the related capabilities of GestureTek, who we also talked to.  All this attracted much attention, but led to little incremental sales.

" ... Angels fell to earth, in augmented reality at least, in a recent campaign for Lynx in London. On March 5, the Unilever-owned brand (known as Axe in the U.S.), put signs in the Victoria railway station telling travelers to look up to a giant video screen. On the screen, they saw an image of themselves plus the angels, who are featured in both the English and U.S. ad campaigns. As this video shows, the reactions ranged from surprised to somewhat lewd ... "

What is the Legacy of Your Online Data?

Revelatory piece in Popular Mechanics on this mostly overlooked aspect of data privacy. Bottom line, it is unclear:  ' ... Our lives are inundated with more data than ever. But when we die, our passwords and online accounts may live on. According to tech experts at this year's SXSW conference, no one yet knows just how to handle a person's digital legacy .. '

Scanning a Barcode to Save your Place in Line

A simple clever idea in Mashable: " ... Scan QR codes to save your place on multiple wait lists.Proving that nine guys can successfully launch a startup in 48 hours on a bus, WalkIN is walking away from SXSW Interactive a big winner. The now one-week-old startup, which lets users save their places on restaurant wait lists by scanning a QR code at the door' ....   But does it go away once more general location sensing becomes common?

Oracle Mobile Client for Supply Chain

New on Oracle and Supply Chains.    I like that these systems are being delivered for mobile use.  Linking to sensors and other real time connections makes sense as we start to immerse ourselves in these complex networking problems.  I want to be able to scan a network and understand its issues quickly.  Lots of historical data and information about the 'now' is required. 

Oracle has introduced a Windows-based mobile client that will allow workers to access its supply chain management software directly from the retail floor or warehouse.  The app, called PeopleSoft Mobile Inventory Management, has been folded into Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Supply Chain Management suite. It requires a copy of the PeopleSoft Inventory and Fulfillment Management application to operate ....

Google Building Bosses

Google, using analytical methods, discovers that it is listening and asking good questions that are better qualities of a manager than having deep technical experise.

Google Mobile Updated

I see that the Google mobile App for the IPhone and iPad have been updated to include a much easier to use interface.  More here.  Works particularly well for searching images from a mobile device or changing media.I like the idea of speech driven search, but rarely find myself using it. 

The Honesty of Smart Devices

How Honest should a smart device be?   In Design Mind.   Cultural anthropologists look at the interaction of devices, data and the expectations of human behavior. " ... what happens when our devices are sensitive, respectful, devout, and perhaps a bit secretive? Smart devices are "more than being context aware," Bell said. "It's being aware of consequences of context." ... '

Google Testing Phone-as-Wallet

Some reports via Ars Technica about Google testing the NFC short range capability for SmartPhones.   There were rumors about the IPhone including NFC this year, but these have been squelched in the most recent wave of information.  Will Google beat Apple in coming up with a robust contact less payment system?

Bringing R to the Data Warehouse

Given the increasing use of R in academia, this makes much sense.  Increasingly people come out of school with knowledge of the Open Source package and its application. 

In ReadWriteWeb: " ... IBM Netezza and Revolution Analytics announced today at the Predictive Analytics World event that the two companies are working together to integrate the statistical programming language R into Netezza's Netezza TwinFin data warehouse appliance. The companies want to make it possible use R to process data on the data warehouse appliance without moving to another system. This should enable much faster data processing .... "

The Moving Value of an Impression

Good recent piece in AdAge Digital.  As I sit in a restaurant watching a number of people heads-down on smartphones. The attention budget we have is clearly now somewhere new, has changed remarkably and it is mobile.

How Social Media Stole Your Mind, Took Advertising With It
And Now, a Tweet From Your Sponsor: With Multitasking Stretching Cognitive Capacity, Are Messages That Drive Marketing Meaningless? The impression is the basic unit of attention that has been sold by media and bought by advertisers for more than 50 years. But in the past decade, something has happened to it; it's not just newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and the web. It's infiltrated every waking moment of our lives through social networks and devices, competing for every last scrap of our cognitive capacity. But we have none left, which is why the impression, and all the economies based on it, may be doomed .... 

KMart Tests AT&T Geolocated ShopAlerts

A not unexpected next step.  The use of geo-fencing to understand location and react to it with push marketing.  Most interesting will be how consumers buy into this idea with opt-ins.   Some testing I have seen shows that shoppers react react most negatively outside a store, since it obviously betrays their location.  Within a store, say in front of a specific shelf, is less intrusive, since they have already chosen to enter.  Overall though, with the right promotions, any location access may be seen as acceptable.  In ChiefMarketer:

Kmart, Other Brands Test Geo-located Text Messaging with AT&T ShopAlerts

Brands will erect virtual fences around locations in four markets and push messaging to opt-ins

Some big names in both retail and consumer goods are partnering with wireless carrier AT&T to test the impact of text messages that send themselves automatically when customers come within a certain distance of the marketers’ store locations ... '

Associative Memory in Defense and Aerospace

I have mentioned Saffron Technology several times here, we examined them for associative applications in the AI space for example-based knowledge systems.   Here they are in the news:

CDG, a Boeing Company, Becomes First to Offer Saffron’s Associative Memory Solutions into Worldwide Aerospace & Defense Industry

CYPRESS, CA & CARY, NC – March 2, 2011 –– CDG, a Boeing Company and Saffron Technology, Inc., a privately-held software firm providing Natural Intelligence1 solutions for business and government, today announced that CDG has joined the Saffron Natural Intelligence Network as an Authorized Saffron Partner. ... CDG is becoming the first authorized distributor of the Saffron Natural Intelligence Platform™ for the worldwide aerospace and defense industry.   ... CDG is a recognized leader in technical data and technical documentation solutions, supporting some of the world’s leading aerospace manufacturers and suppliers. CDG became a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company in 2000, and has continued to expand its portfolio to offer advanced software solutions, training solutions, engineering services, and process consulting for aerospace and defense and other engineering-focused industries.

Too Reliant on GPS?

In O'Reilly Radar, an article about the increasing reliance on GPS location signals.  They are a critical part of our information infrastructure.   Although it is illegal, the signals can be jammed and spoofed.  There is also little current backup for GPS generally available.  Some potential alternatives are described in the article. 

Easier Access to E-Books

More on E-Books from the library:

"he steady growth of e-books has forced libraries to contend with how to curate and distribute materials in a way that makes them easy for increasingly technology-oriented patronage to access. ome 150 public and academic libraries are trying to respond to that challenge through a new collaboration with the Internet Archive and Open Library. The arrangement will allow library patrons at participating institutions to access e-books owned and stored at libraries other than their home libraries. Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian at the Internet Archive, says the group has come up with a solution in which “the tech doesn’t suck” and “everyone will get paid.” ... '

Dropping the Dollar Bill

A clear case for replacing all US denominations below five dollars with coins.   Why has it not worked in the past?  Because they didn't remove the dollar bill.   In MF Perry's blog.

Smartphone Enabled Cancer Detection

A protype that is a good example of mobile sensor-based data display and analysis:  At the Singularity Hub: " ... Massachusetts General Hospital that have knocked it out of the park by integrating a microNMR device that accurately detects cancer cells to a smartphone. Though just a prototype, this device enables a clinician to extract small amounts of cells from a mass inside of a patient, analyze the sample on the spot, acquire the results in an hour, and pass the results to other clinicians and into medical records rapidly. How much does the device cost to make? $200.   ... "

Google Circles

It has been rumored that Google will soon launch a new social networking system called Google Circles.  Do we need a new social network?  The emphasis stated is that this will be about circles of colleagues and the ability to tailor persona's easily.  A good idea, depending on its execution.   An excellent overview in ReadWriteWeb. So what is happening to Buzz?  Likely on its way out as Circles emerges. Make sure to get the privacy right this time, easy to use, and don't make it GMail-centric.

TED Opens up Data and Talks

FastCompany reports that the TED conference will open their talks and related data sources with an API around midyear.  Creative idea.

Fumbling the Future

Mini review and current perspective of the book:

"Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer is the title of a classic 1998 book by D.K. Smith and R.C. Alexander that tells the gripping story of how Xerox invented the personal-computing technology in the 1970s, and then "miscalculated and mishandled" the opportunity to fully exploit it. To "fumble the future" has since become a standard phrase in discussions of advanced technology and its commercialization .... "

Foursquare and Amex Test Loyalty Marketing

A local merchant test to see how Foursquare can be used to build loyalty:  " ... The pilot program started Friday and will run through Tuesday, March 15. Participating merchants have posted “Austin Unlocked” window clings to highlight their participation, and Foursquare users need only register their American Express cards to unlock this new type of special — the Loyalty Special.... "

Daylight Savings Time

A history of daylight savings time.

SMS Codes for Postage in Europe

In Readwriteweb: Could it be that postage stamps are on their way out?  I am a long time student of the history of the postage system , and this makes sense. Of course as long as we still need the ability to send physical information on paper.  We continue to progress in a connected world.

" ... Licking a stamp could become so last century, if a logical plan in Europe ends up spreading as far as it could. Danish letter mailers, beginning April 1st, will be able to send an SMS to that nation's Postal Service and receive a short code back, confirming that they have paid to mail a letter. They'll write that code on the envelope and then the post office machines will scan that, instead of a stamp. Sweden says it's working on a similar system ... "

Tracking Haiti Water with RFID Tags

Another example of how touchless scanners using smartphone can be used for rapid identification.  " ... Deep Springs International is using NFC-enabled phones provided by Nokia Research Center, as well as software designed by a U.C. Berkeley professor, to track chlorine levels in household drinking water ... " .  There will be many more examples, some which come out of necessity, but ultimately from the need to find, organize and analyze based on the data that is everywhere. 

Social Media Success

What does social media success look like?  " ... While firms are realizing that social media networks harbor the potential to provide intelligence and engage customers, it can be hard to form a picture of what success looks, feels, and smells like ... "

The Legality of Selling Yellow Margarine

MJ Perry on the inefficiency of using laws to distort free markets.  Using the US case of Margarine.

Posterous App Group Management

Posterous has announced updates to its mobile apps, for both iOS and Android. The updated versions of the apps bring support for creating and managing Posterous Groups, which is an email list-like service that can be used either as a traditional email list, or as a group sharing service. Up until now, you could only set up a new group via email....'

Learning from Operations Research

In The Atlantic, a short post on using what is called 'Operations Research', and the value it has added to the efficiency of industry since WWII, improving everyone's lives.  I am a long time practitioner.  The article is non technical, and provides an introduction to the basic idea, but no where enough detail.

Open Source Location Service

In ReadwriteWeb:  " ... Until now, Ushahidi has been most known as a service for reporting location during times of crisis ... Today, the company has taken a bit of a turn with the release of its open-source check-in service. Now, anyone with a bit of PHP knowledge and a server can create a Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places or check-in service of their own and keep their location data out of the hands of the public and corporate alike ... "

Turing Award Winner

The 2010 Turing Award goes to a Harvard researcher in machine learning:, much more here:

ACM has named Leslie G. Valiant of Harvard University the winner of the 2010 ACM A.M. Turing Award for his fundamental contributions to the development of computational learning theory and to the broader theory of computer science. Valiant brought together machine learning and computational complexity, leading to advances in artificial intelligence as well as computing practices such as natural language processing, handwriting recognition, and computer vision. He also launched several subfields of theoretical computer science, and developed models for parallel computing ...

FourSquare Grows Up and Serves up Promotions

I have updated my mobile version of Foursquare, after having become disenchanted with the location based check-in game aspect.  GigaOm posts on the new suggestion-based, promotion-offering aspects of the new Foursquare and what you can expect from it.  So far I have taken a quick look and am not that impressed so far.

QR Media Site

A useful site on many aspects of QR codes, applications and related topics. Note their article on Macy's QR Code campaign.

Building It and Getting the Shopper to Buy

Herb Sorensen, well known retail scientist publishes an interesting article in Views: If you build it, they will NOT come!   An evidence-based quantitative view of how shopping works.  Highly recommended.

"It helps to think about retailing, beginning with its basic elements. The driving force behind it is the needs and wants of people. Other people have produced those needs and wants, and it is a matter of getting the stuff together with the people who want and need it. Of course a driving force behind the small store movement is the effort on the part of retailers to get the stuff closer to where the people are, rather than having it in huge stores, where shoppers may have to travel some distance to get access to their needs and desires. But there are other important factors here, relating to what happens once the shopper gets to the store and goes inside. ....  "

What Your EMail Domain Says About You

Fascinating blog post in Hunchblog about what your choice of domain says about your demographics. This is surprisingly important, it has been used by the enterprise to sort and estimate the importance of incoming messages.

Bing Adds QR Codes and Grabbing Text

For a recent study I compared Redlaser and ShopSavvy smartphone barcode readers for on shelf use.   I notice today that Microsoft has added a QR barcode reader to its Bing mobile App.  I tested it on an IPhone 4.3. Their 2D QR barcode reader works quite well, under the same conditions I tested the other two Apps.  Required no specialized orientation and scanned quickly. It also provides a useful list of barcodes read.

Also discovered their text selection and search method, which lets you search for text, say on package copy, select all or part of it, and then save it or search with it.  Clever idea for research in the aisle?

If anyone has related solutions, or would like to collaborate in research oriented applications that deal with barcode reading or other data gathering in retail contexts, contact me.  See my contact info in the left hand column.

Brands as Media Properties

In Brandweek: Unilever says that brands must be turned into media properties via content.

Febreze Reaches Billion Dollar Mark

Commentary regarding the Febreze benchmark on the Brand Channel.  A Billion dollars in sales for a quite simple concept.

Problems with Mobile Location Data

A thoughtful interview post on issues that occur with mobile location data.  " ... Between identifying relevant and accurate data sources, harmonizing data from multiple sources, and finding new ways to store and manipulate that data, location technology can be messy, says SimpleGeo's Chris Hutchins. But there are ways to clean it up. Hutchins explains how in the following interview ... "

Computing Beyond Mathematics

An interesting viewpoint article in ACM.  In one way this is quite obvious, computer science has gone far beyond mathematics ... far beyond just 'computing':

Computer and Information Science and Engineering: One Discipline, Many Specialties
Mathematics is no longer the only foundation for computing and information research and education in academia..... "

SAS Pushes Business Intelligence to Mobile

A very good direction we are seeing as key Business Intelligence vendors are supporting mobile.  You should be able to take your intelligence to wherever your data comes from.

SAS pushes BI to Apple iPad, iPhone
SAS Institute is teaming up with mobile BI vendor Mellmo to bring analytic applications to Apple's iPhone and iPad, the companies announced Tuesday. ... "

Location Based Marketing

In Adage:  a good overview of what marketers should think about when considering the use of  location based services.

Remote Food

3D Printers creating food.   It appears there is still much to do here before this becomes practical or very appetizing.  Yet the direction is clear, digitally formulate food and send it to a remote location where it can be manufactured from primary components.

The Rise of the Service Robot

The past and future of the US Robotics Industry in a good BusinessWeek article. " .... U.S. robotic companies have regained their strength, but face tough Asian and European rivals in the service robot market ... " .   I had watched their downturn, along with US machine tools, and then some unexpected developments in home robotics.  Can they come back?

Webinar on Neuro-Ranking Superbowl Ads

This webinar looks to be very useful, especially for someone interested in the practical application of neuromarketing.  It will be held tomorrow March 8 at 2 PM EST, Here is the complete invitation, with lots more information, including the background behind why they believe VW won, excerpt below:

" ... Sands Research will demonstrate and discuss how we collect this key data for establishing the ranking using our EEG and SMI's Eye-tracking technology. Dr. Sands will also discuss our Neuro Engagement Score (NES) and  Emotional Valance Score (EVS) and the overall Ranking of all the 69 ads presented during this year's Super Bowl.

Learn the details by attending the webinar  When: Tuesday, March 8th  2:00 PM EST / 11:00 AM PST, How: For log-in information email - info@sandsresearch.com  and we will send you the details.
To view all the previous Sands Research Super Bowl Ad Studies follow this link ....  "

Carr on Memory and Self

Nick Carr excerpts a chapter of his book: The Shallows, on the concept of aiding memory.  Is memory being killed by all our digital memory aids and resources?   " ...  I looked into what we know (and don't know) about human memory and its role in our thinking and the development of our sense of self.... " .    I agree that the search memory model we have taken from our recent involvement with computers is wrong, but there are other models that are much more brain like, like associative memory, which we are just starting to examine.  Take a look, for example at developments by companies like Saffron Technologies.  Not to say the problem is solved, but there are other approaches.  Does this ultimately hurt a person's sense of self?  No more than having a big library does.  It does make recall much more efficient.

iPad Providing Comfort in Hospitals

A good example of how an easy to use pad can provide comfort and address boredom in hospitals and nursing homes.  Laptops and Smartphones can work there too, but the simplicity of manipulation that a pad provides, and a relatively large screen, can make a big difference.  At the link a number of comments on experiences people have had.  Also, why not link it to the institutes systems so it can be used to communicate with the patient?  An iCare App?

Disney Advertising Lab

Roger Dooley on the Disney Advertising and Media Lab.  Surprised they were not doing this earlier. " ..  As much as we hear about neuro-cinema and neuro-enhanced movies, it seems that Disney’s goal is more prosaic: determining which ads actually work " .... Well yes, what works is the first step for any lab.  They visited our labs a long time ago, and are a force for any kind of innovation work.

Science of Business

Evocative piece by always interesting Steve Miller in Information Management:

" ... A recent MIT article is making blogger/analyst Steve Miller question whether there might be a nuanced difference between the science of business and evidence-based management that’s important for BI ..  I've written a lot over the past couple of years on the science of business and evidence-based management. In my "Science of Business Manifesto" blogs a few months back, I used EBM as a synonym for the SOB, drawing on the connotations of both to the conduct of business by the rigorous formulation, measurement, testing and evaluation of alternative courses of action. But a recent interview/article in the MIT Sloan Management Review, “Matchmaking With Math: How Analytics Beats Intuition to Win Customers,” is making me question whether there might be a nuanced difference between the two that's important for BI.... "

Tobii Prototype Eye Controlled Laptop

The well known eye-tracking company Tobii is a likely origin to this kind of innovation.   I would like to understand how stable the control of a laptop can be using eye tracking.  

Tobii unveils the world’s first eye-controlled laptop

Stockholm, Sweden, Hannover, Germany—March 1, 2011—Tobii Technology today unveiled the world’s first laptop with integrated eye control. The prototype laptop has been developed in collaboration with computer manufacturer Lenovo and will be shown publicly for the first time at CeBIT in Hannover, March 1-5.  Lenovo, the world’s fourth largest manufacturer of personal computers, has built the world’s first eye-controlled laptop, using eye tracking technology from Tobii. The laptop is a fully functional conceptual prototype and an important breakthrough for Tobii in its mission to bring its eye tracking technology to serial production and consumer products ....  "

Disarming Internet Trolls

A cognitive therapy method to disarming Internet Trolls. A method that differs from the old approach of not feeding them.

Ted Nelson and Content Syndication

We followed the activities and writing of Ted Nelson since the early days of hyperlinks.  Met him at a meeting at the Insititute for the Future.  More on his latest activities: " .... Mr Nelson's current focus is on making it easy for people to republish content on the Internet. His proposal is to charge readers and publishers, based on how much content they read or re-publish. He presented his ideas on syndication at the "Future of Money" conference on Monday ... "

Too Much Information, A Brain activity study

Some interesting questions to ask, from an article in Newsweek:

I Can’t Think! ... The Twitterization of our culture has revolutionized our lives, but with an unintended consequence—our overloaded brains freeze when we have to make decisions.

Is there too much information?  Too many choices?  A neuro study using fMRI is described:  " ... As the information load increased, she found, so did activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a region behind the forehead that is responsible for decision making and control of emotions. But as the researchers gave the bidders more and more information, activity in the dorsolateral PFC suddenly fell off, as if a circuit breaker had popped ... "

Literally True

A lovely look at the meaning and uses of the term 'literally' in the Language Log.  As usual, the LL is not pedantic as you might think, looking at language as a dynamic and changing force.   There is rarely a clear right and wrong.  The availability of many language use databases makes this much easier now.  While formally the term 'literally' means word-for-word and 'not metaphorical', it is used today by most people to signal emphasis. Also fun, and increasingly interesting, the LL looks at what terms show up in your advertising column  when you use a term like 'literally' often.   The semantic net that leads to the results is revealing but also mystifying.

Shortened Links Slowing the Web

Via ACM.  Are a number of link-shortening capabilities slowing the web?  A strange case of unexpected side-effects of a popular capability.

Echo Nest

There are 30 million songs stored at the Echo Nest.  So what are they good for?  Intriguing article at Fast Company.

New Burden on Retail Infrastructure

A good e-Commerce Times article  brings up the issue of how retail infrastructures can be weighted down by any number of new transactions that may be required by new sensors in the store: " ...thousands of transactions taking place as a system monitors a customer's every move can strain a retailer's IT infrastructure. It can impact transaction response times and, ultimately, the business bottom line ... "  - Worth considering as we re-engineer the aisle, and the article is a good start.

Message Minus Meaning

Nick Carr discusses Message Minus Meaning in his review of  James Gleick's new book: The Information.   We now gather, update, use and mis-use and store more information than ever before.   What are the cautions for understanding this behavior of ours?

Dealing with Presentation Nerves

In the Presentation Zen Blog.  With some emphasis on Steve Jobs as an example of a casual, conversational approach.

Bing Aggregates Coupons

Microsoft builds a coupon aggregator into their search engine Bing.  ' ... "This is a savvy move on Microsoft's part," said Azita Arvani, principal of the Arvani Group. "Instead of building their own daily offers, they are becoming an aggregator of deals from several deal providers. The fact that it also ties in the location on your mobile device will make it much more useful." .... '

Conducting a Virtual Choir

The following is pretty remarkable.  A virtual choir.  Play the video.  Now if we could only do the same thing with a conductor/manager performing in front of a group of people who are attempting to do something like orchestrate the completion of a project.  How can we make beautiful music together at a distance with each element in synchrony?   Like all of the net, though, it turns the human element somewhat cold ... Is it worth it?

" ... Who knows what the sound of one hand clapping is, but a choir of hundreds of singers connected by nothing more than webcams and an internet connection sounds, surprisingly, pretty sublime. Classical composer and conductor Eric Whitacre unveiled a clip from his new virtual choir project at TED on Tuesday and got the first complete standing ovation at the conference — something generally reserved for speakers much later in TED’s lineup.It all began when Whitacre received a video from a young girl named Britlin Losee, who was singing one of his choral pieces called “Sleep.”

“I was struck so hard by the beauty, the intimacy of it, the sweetness of it,” he said at the time.  He wondered what it would sound like with 50 singers performing different parts, and sent out a call to choirs and schools around the world to submit videos. “It was all about connecting … these individuals alone, together,” Whitecre wrote on his blog. “For me, singing together and making music together is … a fundamental human experience.” ... "

Robonaut 2

Launched into space,  a humanoid robot.  Not sure what the humanoid aspects gets you exactly besides overblown implications about it 'thinking' and being autonomous.   Impressive though, and it tweets as well.

Post PC World

Engadget editorial about how Apple is creating a post-pc world. They are sure selling a lot of things. And doing that very well.  But are they really new ideas?  Or are they just re sculpting things that have been done for a long time?

Four New CIO Types

In Readwriteweb:  It is suggested that " ... Chief "Infrastructure" Officers, Chief "Integration" Officers, Chief "Intelligence" Officers, and Chief "Innovation" Officers .. " need to be considered as part of a new structure of corporate management.  I agree that all these areas of knowledge need to be classified, but hardly added to the pantheon of infrastructure, with all the added complexity and cost.  Why not outsource these capabilities and have them report to the CIO?

A New Kind of Consulting

Of interest, related to my recent note on social networks in the enterprise.  CapGemini is reorganizing to use social networks to do consulting.  Also, consultancy Atos Origin plans to eliminate all e-email with three years, aiming to replace it with social media.  Lots of changes will have to be made to the social media of today, which are not designed for efficiency or knowledge management, to make that viable.   An opportunity.

RStudio for R

RStudio: A new free IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that looks to make coding easier for the open source statistics language R.  Much more here.

Is Social Networking in Business a Revolution?

Social networking in the enterprise.  What exactly is its value there?  Is it way to improve productivity via more transparent communications.  Or is a waste of time?  A good piece from Wharton on the topic that many enterprises are struggling with.

Is Business-centric Social Networking a Revolution -- or a Ruse?

Programs like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have become a popular way for families and groups of friends (or groups of strangers) to share information and organize their lives. Now corporations are hoping they can tap into those capabilities as a way to improve employee productivity, collaboration and communication on the job -- and a long line of software vendors are hoping to position themselves as the ones to help make the integration of social networking and business a reality. Is it worth the effort?

Comparing ShopSavvy and RedLaser Barcode Readers

I just received an update for the ShopSavvy barcode reader for my IPhone 4 Smartphone.  I was able to do a quick comparison with the RedLaser barcode reader on the same phone with a number of books and CPG products.  The newest ShopSaavy reader update is very slick, it requires almost no alignment with the barcode in reasonable store lighting.  The current version of RedLaser still requires you hold the picture within two sets of alignment arrows, and hold the phone quite still.  The ShopSaavy has pulled ahead, making it very convenient for quick in-store use. Moderate glare causes no problems.   Both can also handle QR codes.  Only RedLaser lets you turn on the phone light, which can also be useful in some situations.   No contest at this time.  The winner for typical use at this time is ShopSavvy.

Unusual Uses of QR Codes

In the AisleBuyer Blog: Another Type of Barcode: QR Codes and Their Unusual Uses  Also see more about what AisleBuyer does.  " ... Meet the World’s First Virtual Shopping Assistant and Mobile Self-Checkout.. At AisleBuyer, we believe in using technology to make shopping easier and better than ever before. We believe radical things like you should never have to wait in line and that you should have access to the best features of online shopping without sacrificing the things you love about in-store shopping. We developed AisleBuyer to dramatically improve the in-store shopping experience while helping retailers attract and retain their customers ... '

Streetview from a Tricycle

Google uses Tricycles, albeit very unusual ones,  to get a streetview in parks and footpaths.  I like the experience being gathered by gathering data from human sensors.   I guess the accuracy needed means this cannot be crowd-sourced. ---  ' ... Google is extending its Street View website with photographs of off-road destinations using specially-adapted tricycles. Here, Google's Daniel Ratner rides his three-wheeled creation The Internet giant has this week launched a large collection of images taken by the 9ft-long tricycles. The novel off-road vehicles will allow Street View to increasingly include images of public and private sites such as Kew Gardens in London, hiking trails in California and Sea World in Orlando, Florida. ... '

Debate on Patent Reform

The debate on US patent reform will begin in the Senate.  My own limited interaction with Patents says we need it.  CW Article.

Buyology Inc's New Website

I see that neuromarketing company: BuyologyInc has a new website.  I have done consulting work with them in the past.  Much better done and more informative site than the previous one.  Included is more on their First Annual Most Desired Brands in the U.S. Report.  Previously also mentioned here.  Also interesting they describe their Neurotypes classification methodology at the site.

Moonlighting Within the Enterprise

Liked this NYT article: Moonlighting Within Microsoft, in Pursuit of New Apps  Admittedly it would work best in the technical enterprise, where you can slice off a specific piece of value and develop it.   A kind of crowd-sourcing, but  internally done, with the people that have the most knowledge and talent to do the work involved.  Certainly this could be done in different enterprises as well? ...

" ... Microsoft has taken an unusual step. It has relaxed a strict rule and will let employees moonlight in their spare time and keep the resulting intellectual property and most of the revenue, as long as that second job is writing apps for Windows Phone 7-based devices.  And they don’t have to do that work quietly. The company is having weekly pizza parties for workers who pitch in to write code for the platform and is planning ways to publicize their work, including posters and awards of recognition, said Brandon Watson, director of developer experience for Windows Phone 7. Free Windows 7-based phones were given to all employees in the 19 countries where the phones are available ... "

Gestural Interfaces on the Street

An example of gestural interactivity with a screen in store.  We examined early attempts at this kind of interaction on the store shelf.  This appears to be increasing in capability and include smartphone interaction and enabling payment.  In Fastcompany.  I have yet to see this in an actual application.  Like in many advanced technology introductions consumers need to become used  to the idea.  I have noticed in just the last few months an increase of shoppers using smartphone barcode scanners in the store.

AT&T to Launch ShopAlerts

It is surprising that this kind of location based promotion service was not launched sooner.   Readwriteweb posts a good overview: ' ... The difference between ShopAlerts and so-called "checkin" apps like Foursquare and Shopkick, is that you don't have to launch an app on your smartphone and take any action in order to receive the coupons a retailer or brand wants you to see. Instead, you opt in one time - in this case, via AT&T's website - and then the coupons come directly to your phone when you're in the vicinity of a store offering the deal or discount ... '  -  Update: More details, initially to be available in four cities.
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Official Google Packaged Goods Blog

I was reminded again today of the official Google CPG blog.  A post this month tells us the insights gleaned in 2010.

Digital Marketing at Reckitt

The focus on digital video is interesting:
In Adage: Can Digital Marketing Rekindle Growth at Reckitt Benckiser?

Marketing Chief Jiri Kulik Plans to Remain Biggest Advertiser in Online Video ... '

Primer on Co-Creation

Good piece in the HBR on the complexities of using co-creation.  " ... But what is co-creation, really, and how do you do it right? Co-creation involves working on new product and service ideas together with the customers who are going (you hope) to buy them. It turns "market research" into a far more dynamic and creative process. It's easy for the C-suite to sign up to co-creation. But very often it goes against the grain of how they built their careers in the first place. This does not come naturally. Where to start? ... '

RFID Journal Offers Starter Kits

I notice that the below offer started last December, and is of interest to users that might want to test these tagging methods in their own environments and conditions.   I am assuming this is still underway.  Read the whole article at the link below to understand what is being offered.

Out-of-the-Box RFID Solutions

RFID Journal is offering several starter kits from technology partners that end users can employ to track IT assets, apparel and other items.  By Mark Roberti  

RFID Journal began offering starter kits from several solutions providers via our Web site (see RFID Journal to Offer User-Friendly Out-of-the-Box RFID Starter Kits). Our goal is not to become a distributor of radio frequency identification technologies, but rather to serve the needs of our readers, who often ask me to recommend RFID solutions that can be used to track IT assets, reusable containers and so forth, or that can be tested in their own environment. We are offering these starter kits as a test to see if there is a demand for prepackaged solutions  .... "

Averages

Good piece on averages, pulled from the new book: Numbers Rule Your World, by the author of that book Kaiser Fung,  which I did a pre review of here.  This is a good place to start in learning about practical uses of statistics.

Associative Memories Applied by Saffron Technologies

Repeating and updating this post because I think there is considerable value in the application of Associative memory systems.   I had a recent conversation in this area and found that the artificial intelligence approach is little known.  

Saffron Technologies forthcoming book: Making Memories, Applying Neuron-inspired Associative Memories to National, Business and Consumer Intelligence by Manuel Aparicio IV

You can register and get a free copy of the Prolog and Part One and reserve a free copy of the ebook.

In the enterprise we closely examined the application of associative memories for enterprise experience storage and retrieval applications.  It is related to neural network techniques.   I have met with Saffron several times and am impressed with this rare and complete application of this leading edge work.

" .. Making Memories tells a story about the science, technology and business of Saffron's new approach to capturing and reasoning from the "memories" of your data. It's what Saffron calls "Experience Management." ... These sections will give you a strong sense of what Making Memories is about: How an old idea -- human thought processes and how they work -- is being applied to create a completely new arena of data analytics for business that surpasses the need for rules and statistics.
We believe the book is very timely given today's data management challenges ... "

Taking Advantage of Social Media

From Chief Learning Officer:  Good intro on taking advantage of social media.  I have worked several projects in social media, including early introductions to the enterprise, and found there is still much mis-understanding in this space.  People understand what it is, but not what they should do to leverage it.

Prominences in the Sun

Not in the usual realm of things posted here, but NASA's new Stereo satellites gives us the ability to see some amazing things about the violence occurring in the nearest star.   Some of the work I did in Astrophysics included modeling the sun and how it acts as a heat engine and evolves.  This kind of video shows us far more of what is going on than we could then.  This activity has the potential for major communications and power interruptions on earth.  This happened just a few days ago:

Cyber-Emergency Policy

Good piece in E-Commerce times on US Emergency Policy.   Who gets to control what aspects of access or interactions during an emergency?

Robot Marathon

The first two-legged robot marathon has started in Osaka Japan.  42 km in an indoor track.  See the video.

Creating Stories: Storify

Brought to my attention: Storify:  Now investigating.

Create stories using social media.
Turn what people post on social media into compelling stories.
Collect the best photos, video, tweets and more to publish them as simple, beautiful stories that can be embedded anywhere ... 

Linkedin Company Search

In Readwriteweb: Linkedin has a new search capability that lets you look at how you are connected to companies.   A nice idea with some subtle capabilities.   Though as I understand it you have to have legitimate connections to people in that company to use it.  As they suggest,  this could be a way to gather statistics about how companies are shifting by type of company and roles.  Unclear if you can get at that data, but it would be a rich source of understanding changes in industry, providing they have a consistent taxonomy.

New Way for Analytics

My colleague, Sammy Haroon, writes about a new way for analytics.

Neurocinema

Good Fast Company article on Neurocinema:  The use of neural scanning techniques, like those used in Neuromarketing, to understand how film viewers react to on screen images to predict how how well they non consciously react.  Lots of marketing dollars here, so considerable potential leverage.  Leading to better predictions of how well a movie might sell to various demographic groups.   It could also be used to help edit the movie by choosing the scenes that viewers react to best.   We examined this idea ten years ago using agent modeling techniques linked to questionnaires.

2011 the Year for Semantic Technology

Good overview article on the opportunities for semantic technologies this year.  " ...  Semantic technology will increasingly be recognized as a tool that helps provide early identification and analysis of consumer sentiment, purchasing trends, market deals and competitive information. Moving forward, monitoring social media-focused comments and conversations will be a core part of any business. By uncovering information in its true context and form, organizations will be able to strategize, analyze and make smarter predictions ... "

Google Changes Search

Google announced changes in it's search algorithms yesterday.  Initially only implemented for US searchers.  Which they say will improve the quality of results by rating sites in new, more equitable ways,  less likely to be gamed.  I have not noticed anything major as yet, but will continue to watch.  Are you seeing very different results?