After reading of the termination of an in-hospital translation service, Patrick Hall suggests a way to make some money:
Asterisk + Wireless network + Laptops + Webcams + Subscriptions + Nationwide (Worldwide?) network of on-call interpreters for lots of languages.
New Scientist is reporting about a nifty calculator program that recognizes handwriting (see the demo movie):
They were surprised to find that people using ordinary calculators got the wrong answer 51% of the time. […] For example when working out the answer to 4 x -5 it is easy to end up with the answer -1 instead of the correct answer of -20. People using the new device, by comparison, got wrong answers only 19% of the time and this was due to inaccurate character recognition, an error that is easy to spot and so correct.
The faculty of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo is considering allowing students to fail more courses:
For the past decade the Faculty has had a serious attrition problem, which is now about to become disastrous. These changes will allow some students to fail more courses before being required to leave Honours or the Faculty, but will also encourage students to repeat courses with poor grades that are prerequisites for other required courses. It will allow students who begin disastrously to recover without having seriously impaired averages dragging them down. It will also allow students who discover in second or third year that they are in the wrong major to eliminate some of the bad grades from their effective record, to avoid carrying that burden into a new major.
uwstudent.org reports:
According to David Taylor, the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the Math Faculty, the changes are necessitated by an extremely poor performance by students who started in Fall 2004. “Over 20% of the first-year class had a “Probation” or worse decision at the end of their first term; 15% had an average below 55%, meaning that there is very little chance, under current rules, that they will be able to continue in Honours (and not a very good chance of success in General).”
Reginald Braithwaite-Lee weighs the costs and benefits of working for a startup:
So how much will you get? And is it worth the work? As I said, I don’t know how much you’ll get. I can give you a few tools for making a Wild Assed Guess.
BusinessWeek interviews Mike Jetter, founder of Mindjet:
An idea for a new business can strike anywhere: In the shower, in the car, even in a dream. Mike Jetter got his in a cancer ward.
Peter Day interviews Excite founder, Joe Kraus:
Lesson number one from Excite is about timing in a technology business.
“Being early is the same as being wrong,” says Mr Kraus.
Ed Bott asks, “Do you think any outside investor will give a seven-figure check to a group of people who choose to spend 15 hours a week playing poker online?” (via Randy Holloway)
Running a successful startup on your off time? Kenny Herbold reminds us that giving up the day job will cost more than just the salary:
According to a survey published by the US Chamber of Commerce in January 2004, employer paid benefits averaged 42% of an employees salary in 2002. That means you need an additional 35 – 45% more than your current salary to make up for these lost benefits.
Looking for printable copy of Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs? Check out Klim’s pdf.
Bob Parson, founder of Go Daddy (who hosts this website), has written down some of the rules he lives by:
1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe that not much happens of any significance when we’re in our comfort zone. I hear people say, “But I’m concerned about security.” My response to that is simple: “Security is for cadavers.”
And 15 more.
Ken Dyck 