Kevin Krejci's Scrapbook

Here are five startups (in alphabetical order) either in stealth mode or just out of it that could help take Hadoop and its ilk to the promised land. (via 5 low-profile startups that could change the face of big data — Cloud Computing News)

Klout’s reputation is growing among investors. The startup, which provides a social credit score for more than 100 million public profiles across various social networks, raised C round of financing of around $30 million. (via Kleiner Leads Klout’s Latest “$30 Million” Funding Round | TechCrunch)

Fujitsu Laboratories Limited today announced industry’s first development of peak power demand reduction technology intended for deployment in smart cities. (via Fujitsu Develops Industry’s First Peak Power Demand Reduction Technology for Deployment in Smart Cities : Fujitsu Global)

OWS and Tea Party Intersection on Flickr.

Hopefully a place where we can all find some common ground and start working together to make the world a better place.

Source - Dare to Demand (Facebook Wall Photos)
www.facebook.com/DareToDemand

I think the OWS and the Tea Party crowds need to agree on one thing, that we all want to leave a better place behind for our kids and grandkids.

The “left vs. right”, “rich vs. poor”, “socialist vs. capitalist” polarization is a red herring, diverting us from the real issues. The problems are multi-dimensional. If we insist on polarizing everything, then maybe it should be focused on systemic thievery. No class, race, religion, nor political party has a monopoly on that. If we’re gonna polarize, let’s polarize against polarization…

With a little help from what’s called the Internet of Things, engineers are transforming cities from passive conduits for water into dynamic systems that store and manage it like the tissues of desert animals. (via How The “Internet Of Things” Is Turning Cities Into Living Organisms | Fast Company)

While we knew better than to mix dangerous chemicals in the school laboratory, creating a breakthrough product today requires real experimentation and a certain level of disrespect for the rules and conventions, the type of experimentation outside of the traditional “lab” environment that encourages entrepreneurs do totally random things (via Exploring The “Labs” Trend in Consumer Startups | TechCrunch)

In the old days, Amazon sold books, Google was a search engine, Facebook was a social network and Apple sold computers. But that’s not the case anymore. Google and Apple now sell phones. Amazon has gotten into the server business. Apple sells music. Facebook and Amazon provide online payment services. And that’s just the beginning. (via The Competition Among Google, Amazon, Facebook And Apple : NPR)

Sites like Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, Instapaper, Snip.it, Clipboard, and Curisma, among others, all allow their users to decide what aspects of the web (text, media, etc.) are worth saving and sharing, instead of browsing the web from Google, or even Facebook for that matter. Because many of these networks have asymmetric follow/follower models, and because users can “tune” whom they are following, users’ feeds could increase in relevance as items are retweeted or repinned. These networks allow for self-expression, and in doing so, re-sort and re-shape the web we see, and that is a very big shift away from traditional search toward social discovery. (via The Rise Of Pinterest And The Shift From Search To Discovery | TechCrunch)

“Oink is an app that lets you rate things at different places, and uses social reputation to help others figure out who to trust about what topics.” I saw a cool demo of it at Web 2.0 Summit #w2s (via Kevin Rose’s Oink Hits The App Store | TechCrunch)

K is expected to help the government predict earthquakes and other natural disasters, analyze climate change, develop new drugs, explore outer space, etc (via Fujitsu “K”: The World’s Fastest Supercomputer Is Now Even Faster | TechCrunch)

Instead of trying to tackle all four energy-using sectors independently—transportation, buildings, electricity, and industry—Lovins believes that we should solve their problems together. (via Amory Lovins On Creating A Prosperous Economy Without Oil, Coal, Or Nuclear | Fast Company)

“The greatest threat to our economy is neither corporations nor the government. The greatest threat to our economy is both of them working together. There are currently two sizable coalitions of angry citizens that are almost on the same page about that, and they’re too busy insulting each other to notice.”

And I would add, “the greatest opportunity is for us all to work together on that part where the two circles intersect…”

(via How Conservatives Drove Me Away: Occupy Wall Street vs. The Tea Party)