Monthly Archives: April 2019

Trying to Make Your Product a Hit? Don’t Sell It on Amazon | Inc.com

Posted on April 30, 2019 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Jules Pieri is the godmother of startup manufacturers. A former industrial designer, she and her business partner Joanne Domeniconi launched The Grommet 10 years ago to introduce novel consumer products to a community of quality- and values-minded consumers. The company evaluates 300 submissions a week, chooses the top 3 percent, and launches them into the market with videos about their origin stories and long chats between makers and customers. Products receiving early visibility from The Grommet include Fitbit, GoldieBlox, and SodaStream. The company also advises entrepreneurs on subjects like packaging and helps them develop distribution.

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Posted in News and Views

Tagged Amazon, Make Your Product a Hit, new product

Nine Signs It’s Time to Drop Your Insurance Company | The Simple Dollar

Posted on April 30, 2019 by knjohn | Leave a comment

While it’s far easier to simply renew an insurance policy year after to year rather than shop around for a new provider, it should go without saying that inertia can be costly.

Most industry experts suggest obtaining quotes from competitors every six months to one year, because the reality is that many insurance companies change their rates regularly and doing a little bit of research can save you quite a bit of money.

Cutting costs however, isn’t the only reason to leave one insurance company behind for another. We asked insurance industry experts to share some of the top signs it may be time to part ways with your insurance provider, whether it’s life insurance, home insurance, car insurance, or any other type of policy. Here are some reasons to cut ties.

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Posted in Tools and Information

Tagged change insurance company, insurance company, insurance policy

The demise and rebirth of the ethical engineer | TechCrunch

Posted on April 29, 2019 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Whatever happened to the ethics of engineering? We’ve seen just one disastrous news story after another these past few years, almost all knowable and preventable. Planes falling out of the sky. Nuclear power plants melting down. Foreign powers engorging on user data. Environmental testing thrashed. Electrical grids burning states to the ground.

The patterns are not centered around discipline or nationality, nor do these events share an obvious social structure. Facebook machine learning programmers mostly don’t hang with German VW automotive engineers or Japanese nuclear plant designers. They weren’t taught at the same schools, nor share the same textbooks, nor read the same journals.

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Posted in News and Views

Tagged engineer, engineering, ethics of engineering

Will Artificial Intelligence Enhance or Hack Humanity? | WIRED

Posted on April 29, 2019 by knjohn | Leave a comment

THIS WEEK, I interviewed Yuval Noah Harari, the author of three best-selling books about the history and future of our species, and Fei-Fei Li, one of the pioneers in the field of artificial intelligence. The event was hosted by the Stanford Center for Ethics and Society, the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, and the Stanford Humanities Center. A transcript of the event follows, and a video is posted below.

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Posted in News and Views

Tagged A.I, artificial intelligence, Stanford, Stanford Center for Ethics and Society

This Entrepreneur Wants Us to See and Record the World in a Whole New Way | Entrepreneur

Posted on April 26, 2019 by knjohn | Leave a comment

I am Lawrence Greaves, co-founder and CEO at OPKIX. Created specifically for a social-first generation, our first of its kind OPKIXOne wearable camera boasts a uniquely compact size, and pairs with an integrated app that allows you to edit your footage with the addition of filters, music and AR, and share across your favorite social platforms.

What inspired you to develop it?

My business partner, Shahin Amirpour, came up with the original idea one day while snowboarding when he realized that there was a need to capture video content hands-free. I had a similar “a-ha” moment when my wife came to me and said, “If you could capture video of the kids without looking at them through the screen of your phone, it would be a game changer.” That’s when we knew we were really onto something.

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Posted in New Business ideas

Tagged Lawrence Greaves, OPKIXOne, wearable camera

Transparent Wood Now Stores & Releases Heat | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

Posted on April 25, 2019 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Three years ago, we heard how scientists from Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology had created transparent wood – it could serve as a cheaper alternative to the silica-based glass currently used in windows and solar cells. Now, the material is additionally able to store heat and later release it.

In order to produce the initial version of the transparent wood, a KTH team led by Prof. Lars Berglund started by chemically removing light-absorbing lignin from natural balsa wood fibers – lignin is one component of wood cell walls.

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Posted in Tools and Information

Tagged solar cells, Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Transparent Wood

Future violinists may be trained by AI | NewAtlas

Posted on April 25, 2019 by knjohn | Leave a comment

If you’re training to be a concert violinist, you don’t want your technique to be merely “good enough.” A new computer system may soon be able to help, as it uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify a user’s bow technique, and could perhaps even tell them how to improve their performance.

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Posted in New Business ideas

Tagged AI, Future violinists, Future violinists may be trained by AI, trained by AI

Bluetooth Metal Detector | CoolBusinessIdeas.com

Posted on April 24, 2019 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Although smartphones can perform many tasks on their own, they’re also able to make devices such as drones, robots and cameras cheaper and/or more capable by acting as their “brains.” One of the latest gadgets to receive such a treatment is the humble – and potentially treasure-finding – metal detector.

Presently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign, the Ukrainian/American-designed Air Metal Detector features a 9.5-inch (241-mm) submersible electromagnetic coil that is reportedly able to detect small metallic objects located up to 12 inches (305 mm) beneath the ground, or larger objects as far down as four feet (1.2 m). When such an item is detected, the Air Metal transmits a Bluetooth signal to the user’s Apple or Android smartphone, which is mounted on the handle.

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Posted in Tools and Information

Tagged Bluetooth Metal Detector, Kickstarter campaign, smartphones

Sprint, T-Mobile merger ‘unlikely’ to be approved by DOJ: report | Mashable

Posted on April 24, 2019 by knjohn | Leave a comment

Things aren’t looking good for the big merger between Sprint and T-Mobile.

The Department of Justice antitrust enforcement has informed Sprint and T-Mobile that the merger is “unlikely” to receive approval, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Speaking to sources familiar with the merger, the report states that the $26 billion deal is concerns from the Justice Department’s antitrust division over threats the merger poses to competition. Sprint and T-Mobile are the third and fourth biggest mobile carriers in the country.

Further complicating matters, several U.S. states are considering taking legal action against the two companies if the DOJ decides not to challenge the merger.

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Posted in News and Views

Tagged Department of Justice, DOJ, sprint, Sprint and T-Mobile merger, T mobile, Wall Street Journal