Michael Hiemstra tipped me off to some Canadians that are going to the DARPA Grand Challenge:
Autonosys has also become the only non-American team to qualify for the semi-finals of the 180-kilometre race for driverless vehicles through the Mojave desert, sponsored by the U.S. military’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency. The race, which takes place in October, is known as the Grand Challenge.
Good luck, Autonosys!
In an open letter to the Kansas School board,
Bobby Henderson demands that if Intelligent Design is to be taught in schools, so should his theory:
Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.
Why Not? hosts an open repository of ideas from on topics ranging from computers to culture.
Peter Merholz advocates relinquishing control to customers:
Again and again, the history of the Web shows us the value of relinquishing control. Amazon’s customer comments were originally thought foolish by those who believed negative reviews would hurt sales. Instead, they increased trust, which drove more transactions. eBay’s open marketplace eschews centralized control of buyers and sellers, instead favoring a distributed management system where individuals rate one another. Not coincidentally, Google, Amazon, and eBay have all made available their Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) so that others can leverage their information in unforeseen and innovative ways.
Dane Carlson lists some startup resources for our American neighbours, courtesy of the IRS.
Update: Check out the U.S. Small Business Administration website, too.
I want a job at Applied Minds:
Co-founder Danny Hillis escorts me down a hallway that dead-ends into an old-fashioned red phone booth. The phone rings. He places receiver to ear.
“The blue moon jumps over the purple sky,” he says, and hangs up.
Suddenly, the booth becomes a door, swinging out to reveal a vast, open room filled with engineers, gadgets and big ideas.
It’s as if Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory just yawned wide to welcome us. Only here, all the candy plugs in.
“This is where the secret laboratories are,” Hillis says.
In a CMS Wire story, Brice Dunwoodie writes:
A recent survey conducted by Microsoft corp finds that workers average only three productive days per week and lays the blame on among other things, unproductive staff meetings.
In an SFGate article, Rachel Konrad writes:
The research firm Gartner Inc. predicts that up to 15 percent of tech workers will drop out of the profession by 2010, not including those who retire or die. Most will leave because they can’t get jobs or can get more money or job satisfaction elsewhere. Within the same period, worldwide demand for technology developers — a job category ranging from programmers people who maintain everything from mainframes to employee laptops — is forecast to shrink by 30 percent.
Perhaps a little stale, but the Waterloo Research and Technology Park Accelerator announced the creation of a mentorship network called the “Entrepreneurs’ Council” on June 13. From the UW press release:
“It will provide a fertile environment to commercialize the innovative work done at universities and colleges, hospitals and laboratories, and in private sector research facilities,” said Carol Stewart, Business Development Manager.
Has anybody heard anything more about this?
Mike Elgan writes about the telepathic headset that Neurosky has under development. From NeuroSky’s website:
NeuroSky, a fabless semiconductor/module company, has developed a non-invasive neural sensor and signal processing technology that converts brainwaves and eye movements into useful electronic signals to communicate with a wide range of electronic devices, consoles, and computers.
Ken Dyck 