How Not To Pitch For VC Funding
Every entrepreneur needs to obtain funding for their project. However, a buzzword-laden product pitch is usually not the ideal way to make a good impression.
Source: Mashable
Source: Mashable
Facebook Profiles - An Alternative To The Wayback Machine
I was alerted today to an interesting archival project taking place on Facebook.
The Singapore General Election 2011 came to an end in the early hours of Sunday, May 8 2011 when the results for the last constituency was revealed. From nomination day, which was held on April 27, till the votes were cast there was an abundance of political commentary flooding my Facebook news feed. Everyone and their non-voting friend had become an armchair political pundit during this brief period.
To capture this moment in time the architects of the Facebook Archiving GE2011 project aim to collect (not analyse) all your Facebook comments, wall posts, notes and other data created during this period. Their means of doing so are explained in a detailed note and the method is striking for its simplicity. All you have to do is save your Facebook profile as a webpage and mail it to their dedicated email address.
This project raises a number of interesting questions which arise out of using Facebook as a means of data archival. Firstly, the issue of data portability permeates the project as there is no clear method of collecting the information. Secondly, the use of Facebook as a tool for political commentary is an interesting notion in itself. Finally, the relevance of archival itself is questionable.
Unplugged
Many GTD experts have pontificated on the benefits of switching off. Is that really what it should take for us to find ourselves or at least feel as though we were connected to the rest of the world? By disconnecting ourselves?
Your life is your own. Rise up and live it.
-- Terry Goodkind (Faith of the Fallen)
Soundstage Replicates the Sounds of Warfare
Is it ever possible to simulate what a battlefield feels like? Steven Grant of the Missouri University of Science and Technology has attempted to do so by building a soundstage that accurately recreates the sounds of warfare.
There is a World Outside the United States of America
To the uninitiate Google has recently announced that they will be creating an online music market/storage platform for users to buy music and store their already purchased music. Details on the exact workings of this new service are light, however early previews appear to be positive.
Read the multitude of (p)reviews of the service if you are interested. Frankly, I am not. I lost interest a couple of minutes after trying use the service. Since I wasn't located in the grand ol' US of A, I was blocked from even registering.
Watches Are No Longer Obsolete
Not so, says Fossil the creators of the Metawatch. No longer will the watch be a footnote in the annals of tech history.
Parag Khanna Redraws the World [TED Talk]
TED Talks are an inspiring way to pass the lunching hour, and this time it was no different. I treated myself to an interesting talk by author and geopolitical expert Parag Khanna.
Noise to Signal - Caption Contest
I am a big fan of Rob Cottingham's Noise to Signal cartoons and today I noticed he was having a caption contest for the following cartoon:
Being a bit of a literary wizard I decided to submit an entry of my own:
Being a bit of a literary wizard I decided to submit an entry of my own:
When Biz Stone called to say he would have me picked up, I assumed he meant a limo.Unfortunately, only one entry per person was allowed, no matter I just dropped Rob an email with some of my other ideas.
- "I promise not to build any more third-party Twitter clients"
- "Is this company owned or leased by the hour?"
- "“Axis of Awesome weren’t kidding about the birdplane”
- “Of all the times to get the fail whale”
- “Sesame street called, they want their big bird back. Next time don’t paint it blue”
