Henry Markram: Supercomputing the brain’s secrets
Henry Markram says the mysteries of the mind can be solved — soon. Mental illness, memory, perception: they’re made of neurons and electric signals, and he plans to find them with a supercomputer that models all the brain’s 100,000,000,000,000 synapses.
Deloitte Innovation elevator campaign
Deloitte Netherlands launched a new business unit – Deloitte Innovation, which focuses on developing new business ideas. As part of the campaign, several Deloitte offices had their elevators transformed into showers. Because after all, the best ideas are born in the shower.
Clay Shirky: How social media can make history
Twitter, Facebook and other forms of Social Media are continuing to change our world in ways we never imagined. Who imagined that Twitter and TXT messaging can facilitate the early waves of democracy in one of the world’s most authoritarian regime, Iran? And who imagined that in May 2008, BBC would first come to know about the devastating earthquake in China through Twitter (last time the quake happened, it took China 3 months just to admit that an earthquake had hit China!)
In this impressive talk, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics.
BMW GINA Light Visionary Model
Am not a great fan of “concept cars”, but BMW Gina deserves special attention for completely rethinking out of the box. Check out the cool premiere video below, where Chris Bangle, Director of Design, BMW Group, describes the thought process that went behind this cool pair of wheels. No wonder GM and Ford are struggling just to survive.
Simon Whatley has some interesting pics. Also check out TechFresh.net for related pics.
Tags: Bmw, Bmw Group, Cars Bmw, Chris Bangle, Concept Cars, Design, Design Bmw, Ford, Gina, Gm, Innovation, Inspiring, Thought Process, Whatley, WheelsGoogle Wave – another masterpiece from Google
Which one of the following communication mediums do you use the most? Email? Video Conference? Instant Messaging? Blogging? Bulletin Boards? Social Network? And if you said yes to at least 2 of the mediums above, am sure you have wished for a product that helps blur the boundaries between these products.
Wait no more, Google unveils Google Wave, an open source, personal communication and collaboration tool – all within a browser, using HTML 5 (dubbed as the Microsoft killer). Simply defined, Google Wave combines the best of worlds from plain vanilla email, hosted conversations, bulletin boards, combined with the power of instant messaging and social network applications like Orkut. Connect the concept with the possibilities at workplace – shared meeting minutes, with REAL TIME view as content is created (yup, real time – meaning text shows up in your browser as your colleague types), real time deliverables and content creation etc.
Lisa Hoover from “Computer World” defines Google Wave as:
“Wave is an elaborate mashup of collaboration, documentation, and real-time messaging that Google hopes will make people finally sever ties with AOL, Microsoft, and other online services. Its function is similar to what would happen if you linked your team’s computer desktops together, then put a giant virtual whiteboard in front of everyone.
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I think it’s a safe bet Wave will fly in enterprise. If nothing else, the magic words “improved workflow” will entice companies to at least try it. There’s no question that freelancers, telecommuters, and anyone who relies on remote collaboration will jump on Wave the day it’s available, and stick with it if it helps save time and money.”
What’s more – Google Wave comes with a cool set of APIs, opening up a world of possibilities and opportunities to develop extensions. Drooling.
Check out Ben’s latest blog post on Mashable.com for a deep dive
Tags: AOL, Boundaries, Bulletin Boards, Collaboration, Collaboration Tool, Colleague, Communication Mediums, Computer World, Content Creation, Conversations, Deep Dive, Deliverables, Featured, Google, Innovation, Instant Messaging, Magic Words, Mashup, Masterpiece, Meeting Minutes, Microsoft Killer, Network Applications, Personal Communication, Plain Vanilla, Possibilities, Real Time View, Safe Bet, Telecommuters, Video Conference, Virtual Whiteboard, Youtube
