Stowe Boyd

Unmanned and computer-controlled drones, with no ‘man in...

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:46:00 -0500

Unmanned and computer-controlled drones, with no ‘man in the loop’?

William Hennigan via LA Times

The X-47B is an experimental jet — that’s what the X stands for — and is designed to demonstrate new technology, such as automated takeoffs, landings and refueling. The drone also has a fully capable weapons bay with a payload capacity of 4,500 pounds, but the Navy said it has no plans to arm it.

The Navy is now testing two of the aircraft, which were built behind razor-wire fences at Northrop Grumman Corp.’s expansive complex in Palmdale, where the company manufactured the B-2 stealth bomber.

Funded under a $635.8-million contract awarded by the Navy in 2007, the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration program has grown in cost to an estimated $813 million.

Last February, the first X-47B had its maiden flight from Edwards Air Force Base, where it continued testing until last month when it was carried from the Mojave Desert to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in southern Maryland. It is there that the next stage of the demonstration program begins.

The drone is slated to first land on a carrier by 2013, relying on pinpoint GPS coordinates and advanced avionics. The carrier’s computers digitally transmit the carrier’s speed, cross-winds and other data to the drone as it approaches from miles away.

The X-47B will not only land itself, but will also know what kind of weapons it is carrying, when and where it needs to refuel with an aerial tanker, and whether there’s a nearby threat, said Carl Johnson, Northrop’s X-47B program manager. “It will do its own math and decide what it should do next.”

As Dashiell Bennett observes, doing its ‘own math’ raises many questions:

It [X-47B] could also revolutionize military and international law, as leaders must decide if they can authorize machines to make “lethal combat decisions” — and if anyone back home can be held be responsible when they do. We all saw the Terminator movies, so we know that usually turns out.

thenextweb: Internet advertising spending in China increased by...

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:18:57 -0500

thenextweb:

Internet advertising spending in China increased by more than 50 percent last year to finally overtake print media ad spending, according to data from iResearch, cited by the China Internet Watch blog. (via Research: Internet ad spend up 57% to overtake print media in China - The Next Web)

"Finnish mobile giant Nokia today released its fourth quarter financial results, posting a €1.07..."

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:13:00 -0500

“Finnish mobile giant Nokia today released its fourth quarter financial results, posting a €1.07 billion ($1.4 billion) loss as sales declined by 21% year on year with smartphone sales and mobile sales down 31% and 1% respectively. Whilst it shows Nokia still has a lot of work to do, it sold 19.6 million smartphones and 93.9 million mobile devices, meaning that over the quarter, sales were up 17% and 5% respectively on the last quarter.”

- Matt Brian, Microsoft Paid Nokia $250m for Windows Phone Use via TNW

Form Letter Template For Acquired Startups

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:02:00 -0500

By panicsteve via Github

Dear soon-to-be-former user,

We’ve got some fantastic news! Well, it’s great news for us anyway. You, on
the other hand, are fucked.

We’ve just been acquired by:

[ ] Facebook
[ ] Google
[ ] Twitter
[ ] Other: _________________

As you are aware, we’ve always provided a free service, and have never even
tried offering a for-pay option. This means we’ve never had any income and
have been operating at a loss for our entire existence. Since any schoolchild
can see this is unsustainable, it should have been more-or-less obvious to you
from the get-go that we were either going to crap up the site with ads at a
few cents per-click, or that we’ve always intended to be an acquisition target.
You can do the math on that one.

Your personal data which, until just now, was critical to our core business
will be deleted:

[ ] Immediately
[ ] Within a week
[ ] Within 30 days

We are excited to continue our core mission of connecting people with
solutions at our new home. Please realize that this is so vague a statement
as to be completely meaningless. But we just made so much money that at the
moment we genuinely believe this horseshit. In reality, you will never hear
about us or anything we create ever again. We are probably going to end up,
like, implementing a new scrollbar for Google Reader or something.

Thanks so much for making our business so valuable and enticing to a much
larger company with more money than sense.

Now grab your data while you still can and get out of here,

Shiny happy Shit.ly management ninjas
Connecting people with solutions
“Shit.ly loves you!”

"@sandymaxey: Anil Gupta defining grassroots: “Minds on the margins are not marginal..."

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 07:52:57 -0500

“@sandymaxey: Anil Gupta defining grassroots: “Minds on the margins are not marginal minds” http://t.co/9fysU9ng”

- January 21, 2012 at 04:45AM via http://bit.ly/yokhHr

"@stoweboyd: Doree Shafrir of Rolling Stone to oversee culture coverage at BuzzFeed..."

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 07:37:22 -0500

“@stoweboyd: Doree Shafrir of Rolling Stone to oversee culture coverage at BuzzFeed http://t.co/ZUxaiaPx Joining Ben Smith from Politico”

- January 21, 2012 at 03:07AM via http://bit.ly/zJkoS6

A Momentary Flow: Study shows that kids, unlike adults, think technology is fundamentally human

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:15:12 -0500

A Momentary Flow: Study shows that kids, unlike adults, think technology is fundamentally human:

wildcat2030:

Via Scoop.it - Knowmads, Infocology of the future

Growing up with the Internet gives today’s children a very unique view on the way the world works — one that is vastly different from that of older generations. These kids, the ‘digital natives,” are raised with modern technology deeply…

Passed on by Seb Paquet (@sebpaquet), dreamed up by Mike Arauz,...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:57:00 -0500

Passed on by Seb Paquet (@sebpaquet), dreamed up by Mike Arauz, Simone Lovati and David Carr.

This seems to lack the added dimension of the social scenes we are embedded in. Specifically, it lacks the impacts that individuals can have when they influence others, and those others carry on ideas to yet another set of others. So it is possible that you don’t know of Stowe Boyd, but you’ve heard the term ‘social tools’ that he coined. So people can be influenced by others before direct awareness of their existence.

"The unwillingness of Facebook and Google to share a public commons when it comes to the intersection..."

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:00:50 -0500

“The unwillingness of Facebook and Google to share a public commons when it comes to the intersection of search and social is corrosive to the connective tissue of our shared culture. But as with all things Internet, we’ll just identify the damage and route around it. It’s just too bad we have to do that, and in the long run, it’s bad for Facebook, bad for Google, and bad for all of us. (BTW, Google also doesn’t show Twitter or Flickr results either, or any other “social” service. Just its own, Google and Picasa.)”

- - John Battelle, Search, Plus Your World, As Long As It’s Our World

Once again, Google steps in a pile of doodoo with its maladroit efforts in trying to absorb the social web. Unwilling to simply index things and offer them up as search results, Google wants to ‘socialize’ search. What this means is that search is just another battlefield for Google to fight the war for the future against Facebook, Twitter, etc.

On one hand, you have to admit that Google faces a new world, one that is increasingly social, and the search company has to get in there. But this is not the way to do it.

I continue to be amazed that Google doesn’t look at its email and calendar apps as a good place to build social, instead of dicking around with search.

"@ballardian: Swedish cities could connect via bike superhighway: http://t.co/BIdFjpL2 | via..."

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:37:21 -0500

“@ballardian: Swedish cities could connect via bike superhighway: http://t.co/BIdFjpL2 | via @sustaincities”

- January 17, 2012 at 08:47AM via http://bit.ly/Ae0NOQ

"To pivot is, essentially, to fail gracefully. While the term has been in the start-up lexicon for..."

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:20:04 -0500

“

To pivot is, essentially, to fail gracefully. While the term has been in the start-up lexicon for decades, it is coming up more often in the current Internet boom, as entrepreneurs find that many investors are willing to keep the money flowing even if a start-up takes a hard left turn.

“Ideas are like lightning in a bottle, so if the company is small enough and didn’t seem to capture lightning on their first try, it makes sense to try again,” said Ben Horowitz, one of the founders of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. “The art of the pivot is to do it fast and early. The older and bigger the business, the harder it is to change directions.”

Mr. Horowitz speaks from experience: A decade ago, he went through a pivot of Loudcloud, a publicly traded enterprise services firm that he founded with Marc Andreessen, into Opsware, a networking software company. “That was very public and very scary,” he said. “We dropped down to 35 cents on the Nasdaq, and although we went back up to $14, it took awhile. When you’re a small company, no one really notices if you make a big change.”

”

- - Jenna Wortham, For Some Internet Start-Ups, a Failure Is Just the Beginning - NYTimes.com

The use of the term ‘pivot’ in startupland is the corollary to the now commonplace notion that you may have to fail in order to learn a life lesson. While this has become conventional wisdom, startup founders are reluctant to admit their baby is ugly, or that massive success is not going to come with the next release. The adoption of pivoting is a great metaphorical headshift, and it’s one great example of ambient innovation: the startup scene has adopted, applied, and spread the concept of pivoting, and that has had major impacts on founders willingness to junk weak ideas.

"@joshsternberg: RT @hueypriest: “Hollywood’s right to make bad business decisions stops at the..."

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:07:19 -0500

“@joshsternberg: RT @hueypriest: “Hollywood’s right to make bad business decisions stops at the point where it threatens our freedom of speech” @evanatwired”

- January 18, 2012 at 05:31AM via http://bit.ly/y2EJi0

"@stoweboyd: 30% of teenagers who were regularly online had shared a password with a friend,..."

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:07:22 -0500

“@stoweboyd: 30% of teenagers who were regularly online had shared a password with a friend, boyfriend or girlfriend http://t.co/Khqwd7hM dangerous trust”

- January 18, 2012 at 04:52AM via http://bit.ly/y8RC3K

Military technology: Magic bullets | The Economist

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:38:00 -0500

Military technology: Magic bullets | The Economist:

The US military is now using a rifle that reads like a science fiction novel: each bullet has a computer chip that calculates trajectory and then blows up when it is near its target, killing the enemy with shrapnel:

via The Economist

The XM25, as the new gun is known, weighs about 6kg (13lb) and fires a 25mm round. The trick is that instead of having to be aimed directly at the target, this round need only be aimed at a place in proximity to it. Once there, it explodes—just like Shrapnel’s original artillery shells—and the fragments kill the enemy. It knows when to explode because of a timed fuse. In Shrapnel’s shells this fuse was made of gunpowder. In the XM25 it is a small computer inside the bullet that monitors details of the projectile’s flight.

A handful of XM25s are now being tested in Afghanistan by the Americans. So far, they have been used on more than 200 occasions. Most of these fights ended quickly, and in America’s favour, according to Lieutenant-Colonel Shawn Lucas, who is in charge of the weapon’s field-testing programme. Indeed, the programme has been so successful that the army has ordered 36 more of the new rifles.

A new equaliser

Each rifle bullet is programmed, before it is fired, by a second computer in the rifle itself. To determine the distance to the target, the gunman shines a laser rangefinder attached to the rifle at whatever is shielding the enemy. If that enemy is in a ditch, a nearby object—a tree trunk behind or to the side of the ditch, perhaps—will do. Looking through the rifle’s telescopic sight, the gunman then estimates the distance from this object to the target. He presses a button near the trigger to add that value to (or subtract it from) the distance determined by the rangefinder.

When the round is fired, the internal computer counts the number of rotations it makes, to calculate the distance flown. The rifle’s muzzle velocity is 210 metres a second, which is the starting point for the calculation. When the computer calculates that the round has flown the requisite distance, it issues the instruction to detonate. The explosion creates a burst of shrapnel that is lethal within a radius of several metres (exact details are classified). And the whole process takes less than five seconds.

Just how the turn-counting fuse works is an even more closely guarded secret than the lethal radius—though judging by the number of failed attempts to hack into computers that might be expected to hold information about it, many people would dearly like to know. Certainly, the trick is not easy. An alternative design developed in South Korea, which clocks flight time rather than number of rotations, seems plagued by problems. Last year South Korea’s Agency of Defence Development halted production of trial versions of the K-11, as this rifle is called, and announced a redesign, following serious malfunctions.

The XM25, in contrast, appears to work well. It is accurate at ranges of up to 500 metres. That is almost as far as America’s main assault rifle, the M-16, can shoot conventional bullets with accuracy. More pertinently, it is nearly double the range of the AK-47, a rifle of Soviet design that is used by many insurgent groups. And according to Sergeant-Major Bernard McPherson, part of the XM25’s development programme in Virginia, it is receiving rave reviews from soldiers in the field.

We are moving into a world where all designed objects will be connected, and calculating: everything is potentially smart, not just our phones.

Smart coffee mugs, smart toilets, smart money, smart business cards, smart doorknobs.

(via emergentfutures, futureamb)

Internet 2011 in numbers - Social Media

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:24:38 -0500

Internet 2011 in numbers - Social Media:

courtenaybird:

2.1 billion – Internet users worldwide.

800+ million – Number of users on Facebook by the end of 2011.

225 million – Number of Twitter accounts.

100 million – Number of active Twitter users in 2011.

70 million – Total number of WordPress blogs by the end of 2011.

39 million – The number of Tumblr blogs by the end of 2011.

Jerry Yang (Finally) Leaves Yahoo

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:07:10 -0500

Jerry Yang has left Yahoo, a few weeks after Scott Thompson took the reins as CEO. I looked back and found this from 2008, a rumor that Yang would be leaving the company as part of an acquisition by Microsoft. That deal — for $47B— fell through, and the company is now worth less than half that. As I said then, Yang fumbled the future at Yahoo, and should be shown the door. Now, he finally is out.

‘Open Science’ Challenges Journal Tradition With Web Collaboration - Thomas Lin via NYTimes.com

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:38:26 -0500

‘Open Science’ Challenges Journal Tradition With Web Collaboration - Thomas Lin via NYTimes.com:

A great overview of how online, communitarian, open science sites are transforming the wold of science journals, and research.

Thomas Lin via NYTimes.com

The system is hidebound, expensive and elitist, they say. Peer review can take months, journal subscriptions can be prohibitively costly, and a handful of gatekeepers limit the flow of information. It is an ideal system for sharing knowledge, said the quantum physicist Michael Nielsen, only “if you’re stuck with 17th-century technology.”

Dr. Nielsen and other advocates for “open science” say science can accomplish much more, much faster, in an environment of friction-free collaboration over the Internet. And despite a host of obstacles, including the skepticism of many established scientists, their ideas are gaining traction.

Open-access archives and journals like arXiv and the Public Library of Science (PLoS) have sprung up in recent years. GalaxyZoo, a citizen-science site, has classified millions of objects in space, discovering characteristics that have led to a raft of scientific papers.

On the collaborative blog MathOverflow, mathematicians earn reputation points for contributing to solutions; in another math experiment dubbed the Polymath Project, mathematicians commenting on the Fields medalist Timothy Gower’s blog in 2009 found a new proof for a particularly complicated theorem in just six weeks.

And a social networking site called ResearchGate — where scientists can answer one another’s questions, share papers and find collaborators — is rapidly gaining popularity.

The web is subversive and corrosive to established power configurations, and now is the time for the scientific journal oligopoly to crash.

"@stoweboyd: 2 out of 5 new CEOs fail in their first 18 months on the job - HBR http://t.co/XtvkXZaR..."

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:22:33 -0500

“@stoweboyd: 2 out of 5 new CEOs fail in their first 18 months on the job - HBR http://t.co/XtvkXZaR via @lizstrauss”

- January 17, 2012 at 05:10AM via http://bit.ly/zfIfqD

"@TechCrunch: Former First Round Capital VC Charlie O’Donnell Launches New Brooklyn-Based Venture..."

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:22:32 -0500

“@TechCrunch: Former First Round Capital VC Charlie O’Donnell Launches New Brooklyn-Based Venture Firm http://t.co/qztUrQbL by @leenarao”

- January 17, 2012 at 04:29AM via http://bit.ly/A2K0dM

"@davewiner: Fred Wilson wants to bring developer conferences to NYC. http://t.co/AkB69Zlm"

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 07:37:37 -0500

“@davewiner: Fred Wilson wants to bring developer conferences to NYC. http://t.co/AkB69Zlm”

- January 17, 2012 at 04:08AM via http://bit.ly/wJQ2mp