My iPhone’s HDR overlaid a protest sign over city hall during the SOPA protest with Craig Newmark and the head of Hackers and Founders. Oh, MC Hammer also had a cameo.
It pains me to say it, but it’s true. Quoting Star Wars is no longer the secret hand shake between geeks that it once was.
Star Wars references have become so pervasive that they have lost all meaning.
Where once a witty “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for” showed that someone shared the same interests as you, and wasn’t afraid to share them in public; now the offhand reference only shows that you haven’t been living under a rock for the last 10 years, and you know what the internet is.
I’m not yearning for some idyllic past where nerds could feel accepted just by quoting movie lines to their close friends, or know a poser for their failure to know the proper shibboleth.
Rather, Star Wars serves as an example of how we build community and create bonds through shared experiences. When that shared experience loses its exclusivity, the community it represents breaks down.
The ways in which Star Wars is being used today, are so far removed from the original sentiment, that it is almost comical.
So next time you see someone wearing a Star Wars t-shirt, don’t expect to be able to bond over your hatred of Jar-Jar, or debate whether or not the Rebels committed Genocide against private contractors when the blew up the second death star.
A much more better phrasing of what I am trying to say can be found in Patton Oswalt’s essay on the death of Otaku.
I’ve been working on a new project, ClinicalTrialshq.com. It’s still a work in progress, but It’s coming along.
ClinicalTrialsHQ allows patients to search over the National Institute of Healths database of open clinical trials across the world. Additionally, patients can provide their email and receive notifications when new trials become available for a given condition.
The idea for the application came from a personal need. I was diagnosed with a disease that has no cure, and only a few treatments in clinical trials. A few Google searches later led me to clinicaltrials.gov. An open database of clinical trials geared towards researchers and practitioners. I wanted to build something that patients could use more comfortably.
There is stil a lot of work left to do. I have to finish the front-end, and the search is not nearly as good or fast as it could be. I should have it finished in the next few days.
The code is available at github.com/cmaury/clinicaltrialshq.
Let me know what you think.
Last week we saw AirBnB announce a partnership with Springstar, a relatively unknown incubator (at least in the US) to help with international expansion. I happened to be in Berlin with BASES and EBS visiting Springstar when they made the announcement (crazy, right?).
Here are two insights I gleaned from the trip:
First of all Springstar is not an incubator; at least, not like the ones here in the US.
Secondly, this type of partnership is the first of many we will be seeing in the near future.
Springstar is not an Incubator
If Silicon Valley is about Innovation, Europe is about copycats. And, while we may scoff at their lack of fresh ideas, they aren’t in the business of new ideas. They are in the business of building companies.
The investment environment in Europe is not the same as it is here. Investors are much more risk averse. This has, then, changes the focus of VCs and so-called incubators. Rather than focusing on discovering new business models, they instead focus on executing and scaling proven models.
Calling Springstar an incubator is somewhat of a misnomer. They are better termed holding companies who have internalized all of the core functions of running a tech company: Search engine marketing, Management, development. They have done their utmost to minimize execution risk.
Leaders in international expansion
By focusing on execution instead of innovation firms like Springstar and Rocket Internet are spending resources on opening markets, not iterating on product design, thus creating a comparative advantage in setting up shops in multiple countries.
They’ve been to Sao Paulo, New Delhi, and Dubai. They know how to set up office spaces, how to hired local talent, and how to market effectively. They have experience with the idiosyncrasies of the local markets and are familiar with the regulatory environments.
These European incubators are minimizing execution risk and are very attractive options for any US company looking to tackle the international market. Expect AirBnB to be just the first of many to take this route in the future.
Discussion
Do you think the European model incubator could work in the US?
Anonymous asked: how do I download your Google reader extension for chrome? My computer can't recognize what to open it with?
You should open the file from the extensions page in the chrome browser
See step 4 in this link:
Here is what the Google Reader Extension looks like
Google Reader hurts my eyes.
It could be the fact that I’m looking at it the majority of the time that I’m awake, but I like to think its because it’s not the most readable website.
12 pt font; black on a white background. It hurts.
So, rather than cut back my Google Reader time, and spare my eyes, I made a Chrome Extension.
Inspired by Readability, the extension increases the font size, darkens the background, and brightens the font.
It’s just a few lines of CSS, but it does the trick.
If you are as addicted as I am, feel free to try it out. You can download it here.
I finally found a store to sell my design! A Little expensive though… Sorry.
Follow the link below:
I Like to Make things.
You could say it’s what drives me.
To have an idea and see it made is a pretty solid feeling.
It’s why I made this shirt. This website. This Blog.
What’s an even better feeling is seeing someone else use what you’ve made, to see someone’s life made better by the work of your hands (One can dream, right?).
Making things isn’t easy though. Bills to pay and whatnot. So, when I see something that is really well made, I try and appreciate it. Even if I don’t necessarily relate to it.
Thinking about the way things were made can change the way you see the world. Asking yourself, why something was made the way it was can really help you to appreciate things like this and this (and see through things like, this, this, and this).
Yeah, so go out and make something, or something like that.
IT CAN!
Well, it could.
There is a company that makes headphones with a built in EEG reader. What’s even better is they have an Software Developer Kit (SDK) for people to build applications for them.
I have an idea.
Combined with the Echonest APIs, the Mindset can be used to play music depending on your mood. Angry? The app will #mce_temp_url#play the perfect song to calm you down. Tired and need to study? It’ll play something upbeat.
The only thing between us and the future of music listening… the $200 price tag of the Mindset. A little steep for a side project…
Maybe Kickstarter can help…
