Thursday, October 27, 2011
Official Google Blog: Google+: Popular posts, eye-catching analytics, photo fun and...
Official Google Blog: Google+: Popular posts, eye-catching analytics, photo fun and...: View Ripples
Friday, October 21, 2011
When CEOs Reject Good Offers That May Have Come from Nobodies: The Case of Google and Excite
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| Excite CEO throws out Google from the door. Click on image for larger view |
CEOs are saddled with offers everyday. But it appears that
when looking at these offers, especially unsolicited offers, the CEOs tend not
to look primarily at the substance of the ideas, but at the persons behind the
offers. Most times also, they either not look at the offers at all or they delegate
the examination of the offers to subordinates. The tendency is for the subordinates
to iron out all the reasons why the “untested ideas” must be turned down. Ostensibly, they
do this to protect themselves from being blamed for anything that might go
wrong should the new idea be accepted and not work. Again, they must create an impression of
protecting the CEO and the company. And, that has been the mistake most CEOs
make.
Truly, these CEOs make important decisions everyday – mostly
good decisions. But they make terribly bad decisions too. One of the worst
decisions a CEO has made in modern history was made by George Bell, CEO of the one-time
popular web portal Excite. The CEO turned down Larry Page's and Sergey Brim's
offer to buy Google from them for a paltry $1 million. The two Google founders
were, at that time, graduate students of Stanford University
Google is today, one of the most successful companies in the
world and is worth nearly $200 billion while Excite is all but extinct.
CEOs ought to understand that people that have already made
big names are unlikely to contact them more than “nobodies” with great ideas.
Larry Page and Sergey Brim were poor university students when they came up with
the idea of Google. Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Dell’s
Michael Dell, RIM’s Mike Lazaridis and Apple's Steve Jobs were all “nobodies” and not even college graduates
when insightful CEOs broke the norm and took on the ideas of these geniuses.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The Great Tech War Of 2012
Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon are battling for the future of the innovation economy.
Let it be known: these modern oligarchies will not last forever as they are today - especially in their various domains, as they keep trying to invade each others' territory and trying to outdo or undercut each other.
Yet, no one should count BlackBerry out in the wireless arena. The giant has been wounded, but is not sleeping. So also, the terribly struggling T-Mobile can bounce back and win its well-deserved share of the market if its CEO Phillip Humm can find none-frontal-attack ways to reset T-Mobile's faulty brand perception.
In the social networking arena, Facebook needs to panic. Google+ is coming. Google+ is adding some class that Facebook may not have thought about. But, I'll leave the details for another day, as the data is yet being gathered.
In all cases though, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon all need to be on guard. The tech world is very dynamic and no one knows the next big thing that is coming in 2 to 3 years or 5 years. Farhad Manjoo of Fast Company magazine puts it well: " ... despite this oncoming war, in which attacking one another becomes standard operating practice, their inevitable slide into irrelevancy likely won't be at the hands of one of their fellow rivals. As always, the real future of tech belongs to some smart-ass kid in a Palo Alto garage."
Before the tech kid appears, I still insist, don't count BlackBerry out and Facebook needs to worry. Google+ has something coming.
BlackBerry can roar back like a wounded lion. Facebook can fall like MySpace. And Apple can fall like Yahoo!.
Let it be known: these modern oligarchies will not last forever as they are today - especially in their various domains, as they keep trying to invade each others' territory and trying to outdo or undercut each other.
Yet, no one should count BlackBerry out in the wireless arena. The giant has been wounded, but is not sleeping. So also, the terribly struggling T-Mobile can bounce back and win its well-deserved share of the market if its CEO Phillip Humm can find none-frontal-attack ways to reset T-Mobile's faulty brand perception.
In the social networking arena, Facebook needs to panic. Google+ is coming. Google+ is adding some class that Facebook may not have thought about. But, I'll leave the details for another day, as the data is yet being gathered.
In all cases though, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon all need to be on guard. The tech world is very dynamic and no one knows the next big thing that is coming in 2 to 3 years or 5 years. Farhad Manjoo of Fast Company magazine puts it well: " ... despite this oncoming war, in which attacking one another becomes standard operating practice, their inevitable slide into irrelevancy likely won't be at the hands of one of their fellow rivals. As always, the real future of tech belongs to some smart-ass kid in a Palo Alto garage."
Before the tech kid appears, I still insist, don't count BlackBerry out and Facebook needs to worry. Google+ has something coming.
BlackBerry can roar back like a wounded lion. Facebook can fall like MySpace. And Apple can fall like Yahoo!.
T-Mobile, too, can roar back. While one cannot completely disregard T-Mobile's current technical challenges, the company's greatest difficulties might owe more to erroneous public perception of the T-Mobile brand than its technological realities. CEO Philipp Humm must therefore find creative ways to reverse the faulty perception of the T-Mobile brand.
Those that are writing off T-Mobile might be mistaken.
Back to the social networking war. Although it's going to be a daunting task for Google+, with the right technical and human strategies, it can dethrone Facebook.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
New Technology that Can Remotely Disable iPhones from Taking Photos During Riots
We can no longer question the volcanic impact Mobile phones
and social networks can make on national security.
The disturbances in the Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, England,
Malawi and other countries seem to be leading to new thoughts in technologies
that minimize the spread of information about riots and internal uprisings.
A patent that has been filed by Cupertino has the potential
to allow governments or police to remotely disable iPhone cameras of demonstrators.
If this technology succeeds, demonstrators’ Mobile phone cameras can be
remotely stopped from taking and sending pictures of the disturbances and posting
them on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. This can, thus, minimize
the speed and intensity by which information about the riots and demonstration spread
over cyber space.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Exponentail Growth of African Undersea Cables
With Internet penetration rates exponentially increasing in Africa, we can no longer question the volcanic impact social media and networks can make in Africa.
We have already seen the impact they have made in North Africa, with the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. But, many people still question whether anything like this could happen in Sub-Saharan Africa. Discoveries by Nnenna Nwakanma, a prominent social media expert show that things are happening in strange places in Sub-Saharan Africa and that the potential of social media and networks in citizen policy engagement can only be likened to a pregnancy whose term is already in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Differential Equations in Security Intelligence Calculations
New advances in mathematical and computer sciences are aiding intelligence analysts in more accurately calculating the quantitative probabilities of future occurrences or in some cases, the directions of specific events or actions by targeted individuals. One of the areas of science that have seen phenomenal increase in their applications to intelligence calculations is Differential Equations – a prominent area in calculus.
Differential equations are mathematical equations that unravel an unknown function of one or several variables that relate the values of the function itself and its derivatives of various orders and magnitudes.
Examples of Differential Equations
Simply put, a differential equation is an equation that contains a derivative. A derivative is a measure of how a function changes as its input changes.
In some cases, as in the case of the first example above, the equation may contain just one derivative and little else. In others, as in the last example, it may contain more than one derivative, and the derivative may be first-order (see explanations of “separable first-order linear ordinary differential equations” below), second-order or any other order!
While a differential equation must contain at least one derivative, the equation may contain other terms involving variables, as in the three middle examples given.
Although the second and third equations look fairly similar, the information they contain is very different.
Separable First-Order Linear Ordinary Differential Equations
A separable linear ordinary differential equation of the first order has the general form:
where f(t) is some known function. We may solve this by separation of variables (moving the y terms to one side and the t terms to the other side),
Integrating, we find
Differential equations are mathematical equations that unravel an unknown function of one or several variables that relate the values of the function itself and its derivatives of various orders and magnitudes.
Examples of Differential Equations
Simply put, a differential equation is an equation that contains a derivative. A derivative is a measure of how a function changes as its input changes.
In some cases, as in the case of the first example above, the equation may contain just one derivative and little else. In others, as in the last example, it may contain more than one derivative, and the derivative may be first-order (see explanations of “separable first-order linear ordinary differential equations” below), second-order or any other order!
While a differential equation must contain at least one derivative, the equation may contain other terms involving variables, as in the three middle examples given.
Although the second and third equations look fairly similar, the information they contain is very different.
Separable First-Order Linear Ordinary Differential Equations
A separable linear ordinary differential equation of the first order has the general form:
where f(t) is some known function. We may solve this by separation of variables (moving the y terms to one side and the t terms to the other side),
Integrating, we find
where C is a constant. Then, by exponentiation, we obtain
with A another arbitrary constant. It is easy to confirm that this is a solution by plugging it into the original differential equation:
Some elaboration is needed because ƒ(t) is not necessarily a constant—indeed, it might not even be integrable.
Arguably, one must also assume something about the domains of the functions involved before the equation is fully defined. Are we talking about complex functions, or just real, for example? The usual textbook approach is to discuss forming the equations well before considering how to solve them.
Why Differential Equations Are Becoming More Useful in Intelligence Calculations
Differential equations have often played prominent roles in engineering, physics, economics, and now, intelligence.
In making intelligence calculations, the philosophical bases of most of the modern intelligence analytical instruments (such as the Lockwood Analytical Method for Prediction) are that:
By solving a differential equation, we seek to find the function that satisfies it (the conditions or interactions of the human free will). In other words we apply differential equations in order to find the relationship between the two variables directly, and not necessarily involving any derivatives.
Applications of differential equations to intelligence analyses have produced excellent results for intelligence analysts because of the advancements in database technologies. With richer databases, most occurrences in our modern societies have moved from the indeterminate realm to the deterministic sphere. That is, in predicting human actions, intelligence analysts now depend less guesswork and more on scientific accuracy. In other words, most human actions can now be effectively calculated based on existing data.
with A another arbitrary constant. It is easy to confirm that this is a solution by plugging it into the original differential equation:
Some elaboration is needed because ƒ(t) is not necessarily a constant—indeed, it might not even be integrable.
Arguably, one must also assume something about the domains of the functions involved before the equation is fully defined. Are we talking about complex functions, or just real, for example? The usual textbook approach is to discuss forming the equations well before considering how to solve them.
Why Differential Equations Are Becoming More Useful in Intelligence Calculations
Differential equations have often played prominent roles in engineering, physics, economics, and now, intelligence.
In making intelligence calculations, the philosophical bases of most of the modern intelligence analytical instruments (such as the Lockwood Analytical Method for Prediction) are that:
- The future is not predetermined
- The future is the sum total of all interactions of "free will"
- The future is a spectrum of constantly changing relative probabilities.
By solving a differential equation, we seek to find the function that satisfies it (the conditions or interactions of the human free will). In other words we apply differential equations in order to find the relationship between the two variables directly, and not necessarily involving any derivatives.
Applications of differential equations to intelligence analyses have produced excellent results for intelligence analysts because of the advancements in database technologies. With richer databases, most occurrences in our modern societies have moved from the indeterminate realm to the deterministic sphere. That is, in predicting human actions, intelligence analysts now depend less guesswork and more on scientific accuracy. In other words, most human actions can now be effectively calculated based on existing data.
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