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Submission + - From Drug Trafficker to Start-Up CEO (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "One of the biggest cultural problems that entrepreneurs face in western Europe is the attitude to failure. In America and eastern Europe, failure is often seen as a stepping stone to success; in western Europe it is a wall. So how does that explain the success of Duane Jackson, CEO of KashFlow? A company that since 2004 has been selling accounting software for small businesses and today has over 10,000 customers and is still the only accounting software with certified PayPal integration. “I failed spectacularly,” he said. Spectacular means being arrested in early 1999 at the airport in Atlanta, Ga. attempting to smuggle in 6,500 ecstasy tablets. “I’m sometimes asked how I fell into crime. I didn’t fall into it. I grew up with it.” Growing up in children’s homes from the age of 11, Mr. Jackson taught himself how to program. “None of the secondary schools in Newham [London] would take me. The children’s home were left to teach me. So they locked me in the dining room with a few worksheets, but they also had a ZX Spectrum in there. I spent close to a year with the manual and learned how to program.”"
Android

Submission + - Renault Opens Up the 'Car as Platform' (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "Renault has launched what it describes as a “tablet,” an integrated Android device built into its next range of cars, effectively opening the way to the car-as-a-platform. The device, called the R-link, will be integrated into the forthcoming Renault Clio 4 as well as the Zoe electric vehicle, according to Patrick Hoffstetter, Renault’s chief digital officer. Renault will roll it out across the full range, he said.
At the Le Web conference last year, Renault’s chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, announced the company’s intention to open up the car to developers, safety considerations not withstanding. “The car is becoming a new platform,” said Mr. Hoffstetter. He said the seven-inch device can be controlled by voice recognition or by buttons on the steering wheel. “We need help now,” he said. “We need developers to work on apps.” When it launches, there will be about 50 apps bundled with the device, mostly written by Renault. “We will open a Renault app store for people to download their own apps,” he said. Although Mr. Hoffstetter would not be drawn on the exact terms for developers, he said there would be a revenue share."
Education

Submission + - The $25 Computer: Lego for a Digital Age? (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "A computer the size of of a pack of cards, yet powerful enough to run full-scale applications, and even provide high-definition, Blu-ray quality output is being designed by researchers in Cambridge. It will cost just $25. Called Raspberry Pi, think of it as Lego for the digital generation. According to Robert Mullins, co-founder and lecturer at Cambridge University’s Computer Science department, the computer is aimed mainly at school children to help them enjoy computers and have fun programming. “We wanted something that had a kit, or toy, feel to it,” he said. “We wanted to make it cheap enough so that even if you only have pocket money you should be able to buy one.”"

Submission + - Nokia Targets the "Next Billion" Internet Users (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "What’s the difference between a smartphone and a feature phone? According to Mary McDowell, who is leading Nokia's feature phone charge in emerging markets, it's the fact that software applications can be written to run natively on the operating system. It’s a definition that average consumers likely don’t care about. Ms. McDowell is trying to blur that line with feature phones that surf the web and run applications (not natively on the OS) such as Facebook and WhatsApp. When asked why, she says it’s more about getting these consumers to pay a little bit more for their features phones—which help Nokia’s margins—and less about prepping people to trade up to smartphones. Nokia’s effort to “bring the Internet to the next billion” is an interesting strategy that doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves."
Government

Submission + - Net Neutrality Worth €155 Billion in Europe (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "Although the debate on net neutrality is frequently heated it is also often ill-informed and can seem obscure which is why, perhaps, the arguments have often been restricted to a techy minority. A new U.K. report, The Open Internet--Platform for Growth seeks to throw a little light on the issue. It should, however, be noted from the outset that the organizations that commissioned the work, the BBC Blinkbox, Channel 4 television, Skype and Yahoo have all benefited from net neutrality. Nevertheless the points raised are ones that do need to be answered by supporters of Internet traffic discrimination. In the executive summary, the report, produced by Plum Consulting, outlines what it sees as the principles governing the open Internet. The report suggests there is a sort of virtuous circle where consumer demand for Internet access drives investment in enhanced networks, that in turn allows growth in Internet-based applications, which consumers want and therefore drives their demand for access, and so on. "The open Internet has allowed start-ups such as Skype, Yahoo!, Spotify, YouTube, Google and Facebook to scale globally," the report says."
Media

Submission + - Twitter As a Scientific Tool (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "Twitter could almost have been created as a tool for scientific analysis. It churns out vast quantities of data in a format that looks perfect for computational crunching. But do tweets reflect what is really going on in the world? The BBC reports on how “engineers” from Texas Rice University monitored tweets during American football games. Professor Lin Zhong said that this tracking revealed what was happening in the game sometimes faster than broadcast media, often registering big events within 20 seconds. This Twitter-following technique, he said, could be applied to anything from monitoring reactions during televised political debates to revealing the location and duration of power cuts. However, other scientists were warning of the potential dangers of focusing too much research on social media and big data analysis techniques."

Submission + - Augmented Reality Aids Cybersquatting (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "Layar, based in Amsterdam, is working on products that take augmented reality in a slightly different direction. You can now interact with any object, brand or anything really. It gets pretty complicated but the implications of what AR is doing are quite significant. For those not familiar with Layar, it is a platform that allows anyone to build an AR app. You use your mobile phone's camera to view the world and since your phone knows where you are and what you are looking at.The implications are profound. One of the most interesting apps that someone produced was a virtual tee-shirt shop. It was placed in the 20 most expensive shopping streets in the world, selling t-shirts. Stop and think about that for a minute. He built a virtual shop where a real one already existed. His shop was accessible via a mobile phone, the real one was accessible through, well, being real. That means that real space and virtual space can be owned by different people. There will be lawyers."
Science

Submission + - Moore's Law of Processing Power Is Superseded (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "In 1965, Intel founder Gordon E. Moore predicted computer processing power, measured in terms of the number of transistors which could be placed on a chip, would double roughly every 18 months. But, particularly with the growth in the number of portable computing devices, “Moore’s law” has become increasingly irrelevant. What matters now is power consumption, whether it is cutting the cost of giant data centers or making sure the battery in your laptop, cellphone or tablet lasts all day. Surprisingly, perhaps, the Technology Review published by MIT reports that researchers have found that energy efficiency also doubles roughly every 18 months, an effect it dubs “Koomey’s law” after the leader of the project, Jonathan Koomey, consulting professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University."
Security

Submission + - Cybercrime Victims Number One Million Each Day (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "Over one million adults around the world are the victim of cybercrime every day, according to figures published Wednesday. The Norton Cybercrime Report 2011 paints a gloomy picture. The company estimates that cybercrime cost online consumers over the 24 countries surveyed a total of $388 billion in just one year. By contrast, according to Adam Palmer, Lead Advisor at Norton Cybersecurity Institute and a former U.S. Navy prosecutor, the entire global trade in cocaine, heroin and marijuana is worth $288 billion. All told, Symantec estimates that there are 431 million victims a year. Your chances of being a victim of cybercrime (44% of people reported being a victim) are substantially greater that being a victim of a physical crime (15%)."
Apple

Submission + - What Happens if Apple Wins EU Tablet Dispute? (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "What is the difference between an air freshener bottle and a tablet computer? Quite a lot, Apple will be hoping, when it returns to court in Düsseldorf, Germany, on Thursday 25 August trying to prove the Samsung Tab 10.1 is a copy of the iPad. The importance of the air freshener bottles is they were the focus of the first Community design case to go all the way through the appeals process. Proctor & Gamble claimed Reckitt Benckiser’s “Air Wick Odour Stop” copied the“Febreze Air Effects” canister. Much to the surprise of many intellectual property (IP) lawyers Procter & Gamble lost the case. “From that point on everybody looked at registered design and thought, it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on,” said Alexander Carter Silk, partner and head of the IP, technology and commercial team at law firm Speechly Bircham. So Apple appears to be the first major technology company to use European design law for litigation. But its victory would have wide repercussions."
Advertising

Submission + - Digital Tech and the Re-Birth of Product Placement (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "When you think of product placement on television you tend to think of cumbersome 1950s examples where the actor would cheesily turn to camera and hold up say a bar of soap—where do you think the sobriquet soap opera came from—to deliver his line. Perhaps to save all of us the artistic murder, the practice was prohibited in Europe, but recently the prohibition has been relaxed and a U.K. start up is offering digital producers the chance to inject products realistically in post production with full directorial control. The problem with existing physical product placement is that there are no clear business plans, and the process is incredibly slow. In Europe, legal constraints prohibit directors from re-writing scripts to include products, so any placement has to be done at the creative stage. “This means 9-12 months to get the result from the idea of introducing a brand into a show to broadcast,” says Mark Popkiewicz, CEO of MirriAd.
For three of its four years, says Mr. Popkiewicz, the company was building and perfecting the technology that allows it to process, in quicker than real time, video to identify opportunities to inject products after shooting, and the parallel technology to scan the product and inject it into the video unobtrusively. The key to success is two fold: artistically how well the products blend into the movie, and commercially, how successful it is for the advertisers."
Google

Submission + - Google to Buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 Billion (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "Google Inc. agreed to acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. for about $12.5 billion in cash, a move that would make Google more competitive in the mobile-computing market. The deal, which comes just eight months after the split of Motorola Inc., would give Google control of Motorola Mobility's attractive patent portfolio after the Internet giant recently missed out on a bid for Nortel Networks Corp.'s portfolio. Google, which owns the fast-growing Android operating system used in millions of mobile phones, has a thin portfolio of wireless and telecommunications patents. Motorola Mobility shares soared 60% to $39.24 premarket, approaching the offer price of $40 a share, which is a 63% premium to Friday close. Google shares were down 3.2% to $546.50 premarket Monday.
Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business that will remain a licensee of Android. Google also said Android will remain an open platform. Google expects to complete the transaction by early 2012, and it has been approved by the boards of both companies."
Blackberry

Submission + - U.K. Riot Plans To Control Social Media Won't Work (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "U.K. government proposals to prevent individual users accessing social media during periods of civil disorder were not technically viable and would be legally highly problematic. “It is all bluff,” said BT’s former CTO. Facebook, Twitter and specifically Research In Motion’s messenger service, BBM, have been blamed for helping to fuel the violence that has plagued several British cities this week. Speaking to an emergency session of the House of Commons Thursday, the U.K. Prime Minister, David Cameron told MPs: "when people are using social media for violence we need to stop them. So we are working with the Police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality. I have also asked the police if they need any other new powers." Nick Tyler, senior associate at Reed Smith’s London office, said attempts to block individuals from accessing particular websites could fall foul of both article 8 and 10 of the Human Rights Act. “It would go to the heart of democracy and liberal society,” he said. “There is a confusion here between preventative measures, stopping people from doing things, and investigative matters, investigating things once they have done it. “I would say it would be very difficult to use the law to stop people from accessing these sites. The government would have to do the sort of thing China did during the Olympics,” he said."
Government

DHS Creating Database of Secret Watchlists 158

Posted by Soulskill from the veracity-is-optional dept.
schwit1 writes "Homeland Security plans to operate a massive new database of names, photos, birthdays and biometrics called Watchlist Service, duplicated from the FBI's Terrorist Screening Database, which has proven not to be accurate many times in the past. DHS wants to exempt the Watchlist Service from Privacy Act provisions, meaning you will never know if you are wrongfully listed. Privacy groups worried about inaccurate info and mission creep have filed a protest, arguing the Privacy Act says DHS must notify subject of government surveillance. DHS has admitted that it 'does not control the accuracy of the information in system of records' and that 'individuals do not have an opportunity to decline to provide information.' Additionally, the DHS Watchlist Service attempts to circumvent privacy protections established by the Privacy Act. Who's watching the watchers?"

Submission + - Nokia's Losses Powers Finland's Start-Up Culture (wsj.com)

Submitted by
pbahra
pbahra writes: "A few weeks ago Microsoft’s European chairman told TechEurope that the average amount of venture capital per head across Europe was just $7. Finland beat that with a single deal. The reported $42 million investment in Angry Birds developer Rovio translates to roughly $8 for each of the 5 million men, women and children in the country.
Finnish blog ArcticStartup has extrapolated figures showing the total average VC investment per capita for the country was $46 in 2010 while for national neighbors Sweden, the figure was about $45. But, in what the blog calls "Arctic Valley", it is Finland that is currently attracting much of the attention.
The question of why this country on the edge of the Arctic Circle should have such active entrepreneurs came up again in a conversation with Wilhelm Taht, the marketing director of Flowd, a social network for musicians and their "super-fans". It is one of several Finnish companies focused on the music business including Steam Republic and Hitlantis. "oeWith Nokia changing gear there is a lot of technical know-how all of a sudden which wasn’t available even two years ago," said Mr.Taht, diplomatically, about the savage job cuts at the struggling mobile phone giant. "oeThere's a culture of technically savvy engineers. Finns are not necessarily very talkative people, but when it comes to what they know about computers and programming it'(TM)s pretty staggering.""

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