New! Mini Projector.

Most projectors are pretty bulky affairs, designed to take up a shelf facing a wall and never move. But what if you want to bring your projector with you, setting it up wherever you want and turning any surface into your own personal theatre? Well, then you need something smaller. Much smaller.

Like this Hikari Pro920 projector, which is so small you can stick it in one of your larger pockets. Of course, at that size the picture size is gonna be pretty small as well, with it designed to toss a 24-inch picture or smaller on the wall with quality dropping significantly at higher sizes. But hey, with it being that small and it costing only $299-$399, how can you go wrong with a projector like that?

How to Put the Breaks on Climate Change.

Click on above title and watch this David Keith TED lecture, and you'll have a peaceful weekend.

World's fastest elevator makes elevators scary.

If you aren't spooked by elevators, that might change if you take a ride in Taipei's Taipei 101 building.

That's because it sports the fastest elevator in the world, shooting people up from the 5th floor to the 89th floor in a mere 37 seconds. Wizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

It uses triple-stage, anti-overshooting systems and high-tech emergency break systems to keep it safe, but that won't make your stomach drop any faster once it starts off on its rocket flight.

My advice is to avoid the Taipei 101 building if you can

The End of Aging

Aubrey de Grey may be wrong but, evidence suggests, he's not nuts. This is a no small assertion. De Grey argues that some people alive today will live in a robust and youthful fashion for 1,000 years.

In 2005, an authoritative publication offered $20,000 to any molecular biologist who could demonstrate that de Grey's plan for treating aging as a disease -- and curing it -- was "so wrong that it was unworthy of learned debate."

Aubrey de Grey created the Methuselah Foundation to support scientific research into extending the life span, oh, 900 year.

Now mere mortals - who may wish to be significantly less mortal - can judge whether de Grey's proposals are 'science or fantasy.'

De Grey's much-awaited "Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime" has just been published.

The judges were formidable for that MIT Technology Review challenge prize. They included Rodney Brooks, then director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; Nathan Myhrvold, former chief technology officer of Microsoft; and J. Craig Venter, who shares credit for first sequencing the human genome.

In the end, they decided no scientist had succeeded in blowing de Grey out of the water. At issue is the conflict between the scientific process and the ambiguous status of ideas that have not yet been subjected to that process.

Well yes, that. Plus the question that has tantalized humans forever. What if the only certainty is taxes?

Dodging death has long been a dream.

Our earliest recorded legend is that of Gilgamesh, who finds and loses the secret of immortality.

The Greek goddess Eos prevails on Zeus to allow her human lover Tithonus to live eternally, forgetting, unfortunately, to ask that he also not become aged and frail. He winds up such a dried husk she turns him into a grasshopper.

How to Manage Complex Innovation.

Complexity in terms of up-scale, intricacy, and the increasing number of sub-systems has been noted as a prime sandbag, and often acute limit on many fields of technological and systems innovation. Hyperinnovations build an ever higher mounting for organisations to climb.

This is known as The Wall.

NASA, Airbus and IBM are working with their nose flat against The Wall.

NASA’s ‘Mission to Mars’ includes the development, integration, qualification and commission of 10s of 1000s of technological sub-systems.

Airbus’ A380 dual deck airliner has over 10 million components that have to fit and function to peak aerospace standards.

IBM’s Bluegene/Peta-FLOP supercomputer integrates 100’s of Pentium microprocessors.

Molecular chemists and their retrovirus pharmaceuticals, software hackers and their code length, telecoms engineers and the connection models, even CEOs and their strategic alliances, join the pack.

So what to do?

Work harder? Redouble efforts? Put the pedal to the metal?

A common error when toiling to heat up the pace of innovation in the face of increasing complexity, is to load more agents. That’s more staff, more managers, tighter control, stricter rules, more policies, ever sophisticated technologies, fatter resources, and a bank load more financial capital, in an attempt to increase effort and raise output.

This might be a correct action for a highly certain, steady-state, linear process, like counting the number of books in a library. In this case, for every agent added, there is a significant increase in output.

Innovation, and especially multidimensional innovation, is, however, a highly uncertain and acutely interactive process.

The point?

The more agents employed, the greater the number of interactions and communication passes there are. There is a point where for every extra agent added, there is a decline in productivity, which ultimately adds to the complexity of the innovation that it was intended to advance.

The answer to managing n-dimensional innovation at a faster pace, is not to add yet more agents, but to innovate multidimensional management systems. They are smarter, simpler, integral, and exactly suited for Hyperinnovation.

My book Hyperinnovation describes such a management model. See sidebar for table of contents and excerpts.

TED, Not So Cuddly After All.

I recently had a chat with a rather amiable TEDster (a TEDster is an aficionado of the famous TED lectures).

She purported with verve and glee that the TED lectures are a real boon for our world. The bringing together of the most successful, smartest, insightful and driven people on the planet to speak about their achievements, and how they are, or will, benefit mankind.

I’m, in fact, a TEDster, and proud of it. But I do have may reservations.

In the constructive sense, I can be quite critical of TED. Here’s an example.

Steven Pinker, the Harvard University Professor of Psychology, gave a lecture on ‘The Myth of Violence.’ He maintained, in his own words, that ‘Our ancestors were far more violent than we are… violence has been in decline for long stretches of time… and that today we are probably living in the most peaceful time in our existence.’

Looking at human history, there is much evidence that backs this. Going way back to the beginning of human history, human’s would wage war for no reason other than to dominate. War and outright murder just because one human or tribe was bigger than another. It was outright savagery.

In the recent past, invasions and wars were base on economic and territorial gain, which, if the truth be known, were based on primitive ego and mania (re: Genghis Kuhn, Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, at el).

Only lately, in relative human history terms, have wars been waged on ethical grounds. So-called principled wars doing the right thing, putting a fullstop on the spread of illegitimate or corrupt causes. And in the extreme halt genocidle tyranny

But what Pinker neglected to say was the fact that at no other time have we had the capacity to totally and utterly wipe humanity off the planet. He didn’t include the fact that the UK’s Ministry of Defence, and the US’s DRAPA are R&Ding weapons of a destructive magnitude that make Nuclear and Biological warheads look like pop guns.

For me, the real issue is not simply how peaceful we are, but how safe we are.

I’d like to hear Prof Pinker lecture on that.

Internet Versions: 5 Steps to Nirvana.

Somebody just asked me to describe what ‘Internet 2.0’ (Internet Two Point O) means/is?

Internet version 1.0 was the original slow, unreliable and basic 15k bps version, which took ages to down load a simple text file.

Internet version 2.0 is the 1 to 10Meg (ish) bps system most have now, that down loads 30 second video clips in a few seconds. Augmented with applications that make it easy for people to come together, share images, ideas, video link and more (you know this of course).

But this is only the beginning.

Internet version 3.0 (c.2012+) will be an always-on, always connected form, that can download multiple high-definition full-length feature films in real-time.

Internet version 4.0 (c.2018+) will be always-on, always connected 3D high definition immersive environments, where users engage in virtual augmented realities with other users at their leisure.

Internet version 5.0 (c.2025) will be always-on, always-in direct nervous system injection of real-time augmented realities. Most people will want to live in a Matrix kind of world, because of the increased magnitude of fun, intrigue, discovery, companionship, freedom, easy-of-life, and clean and safe ambience.

Many will reject, scoff, and even attempt to stop V5.0.

However:

People with chronic debilitating illnesses or crippling disabilities will think they've risen to Nirvana.

The blind will see not just reality in all its beauty, but hyperreailty in all it unknown mystery.

The profoundly deaf will hear not mere dampened hissy dins, but virgin clear blasts of vibrant ecstasy.

Wheelchair bound paraplegics on oxygen respirators will fly over Manhattan and the Himalayas, walk on the Moon; and if they so choose, walk down the local High Street with their partner.

BBC, Let Go of Your Comfort Blanky.

In times of accelerated and discontinuous change, there is (all to often) a reflex to cling to the past. To hold on to what we know well. A kind of comfort blanket.

Comfort blankets and corporations alike, there is a long list of companies that went out of business because they failed to embrace the future.

Examples:

When mains feed electricity arrived, instead of moving into incandescent lamps, gas and kerosene lamp manufacturers diligently polished their old lamp designs; coming up with wondrously efficient, quite ingenious concepts. Yet, all of the hundred or so mechanical lamp outfits went out of business within a decade.

The same story surrounds the US railway firms, as freeways and commercial airlines took off. In the same vein, Vaudeville vanished and Hollywood barely escaped being totally ravished by TV; most showbiz companies simply disappeared. Again, the reliability and plain availability of newfangled Electric Motors cut the Steam Engine to ribbons.

The lesson:

Instead of moving forward into the changing reality, the vanguard of the future, these companies honed incumbent strategies. They clung to their comfort blanket, their anxiety crutch of the past.

Compare this to companies and individuals that revolutionise their business strategies:

General Electric, a giant business that was exclusively into big machines like Jet Turbines, Hydro Electric Dams, and Theatre Lighting, etc. Then came the Capital Markets and Electronic Commerce. But instead of just getting lean and improving quality in their lumps of metal businesses (which incidentally they did to the highest standards) CEO Jack Welch (recently retired) transformed GE into the world’s number one consumer finance company. A radical depart from chunks of iron.

Virgin Group never stands still, willing to let go of much beloved core businesses. Virgin sold Virgin Records to gain the investment capital to pump-up their airline business (just as the likes of Napster and MP3 showed up… Smart!). And they did it again with Virgin Radio to develop Virgin Media. Today, Virgin Group is a $25 billion outfit, in markets that many a business has folded.

But this bold innovation strategy doesn’t stop at corporate door.

Radio Head are developing web-based music distribution. They’re also letting fans set a price for down-loading recordings. Instead, they’re asking aficionados to set the price on a purchase (a penny, a pound, eight quid, or what?). Then further enable fans (who bought their web-based product) to get into certain Night Clubs and Gigs at greatly reduced admission.

Madonna recently walked away from Warner Music Group Corp and signed a £100 million landmark deal with concert promoter Live Nation Inc. She said, ‘The paradigm in the music business has shifted and as an artist and a business woman, I have to move with that shift…. For the first time in my career, the way that my music can reach my fans is unlimited. I've never wanted to think in a limited way and with this new partnership, the possibilities are endless.’

So a question: who are now your competition? An important question in these times of tidal wave change.

Let’s take the case of the BBC. Who, now, are their predators?

Well, it’s not simply ITV, Sky or Channel 4.

The BBC’s Nine O’Clock News main rival is not purely ITN’s News at Ten.

BBC Radio 1 to 7 is not merely in opposition with incumbents Juice or Classic FM.

No, not in the least.

It’s nascent cyberspace outfits like Joost, YouTube, and Channelchooser. It’s laptop desktop clips and IPodcasts. It’s the Ministry-of-Sound, Helterskelter, Space and Oasis online Channels. It’s even across the pond, but now online Fox News and ABC. These are the entrepreneurial ether outfits that are blazing the TV and Radio trail.

BBC, let go of your comfort blanky. Get radical!

Here’s some Hyperinnovation tips:

End territorial TV by 2014. Bandwidth capacity to carry real-time high definition TV will there.

Scale down your admin work force, and redeploy admin staff to technical, production and creative roles.

Create an ‘any and all’ web-based TV on demand multichannel, and put all programming on online. Want to watch an episode of Handcocks Half Hour or Hill Street Blue? Down load it.

Create individual channels for all popular TV programs: an Eastenders channel, a Blue Peter channel, an Horizon channel, and so forth.

Democratise viewing, by integrating a vote casts to lead what’s on-line.

Regular pod cast the most popular.

Simultaneously take bigger risks in programming.

Make at least half the programming short 5, 10, 15 and 20 minute programs (it’s a time crunched world).

Hypersociety.

Society was once highly uniform. Organised in top-down hierarchy, in pyramid like structures. At the apex lived the state, the church, the army, the university.

Underneath lay a large wall of homogeneous social blocks, with class as its mortar, and the family unit as it foundation. In this time, stability and centralisation was the scheme for the individual, the family, the firm and government alike.

Stability gave a predicable future, which encouraged the laying of plans and roots, with a sure knowledge that tomorrow would be pretty much the same as yesterday. Centrality gave everyone a place, everything a demarcation.

So in this old world prudence mandated the rules of the game, and of course efficiency the ultimate and absolute aim.

But now look? We live in a kind of network society, where ideas transcend borders at the speed of light via ubiquitous media from elementary comic book to live internet television.

Where the great wall of social conformance quakes and crumbles to mere rubble. Where hierarchy and deference is eroded by egalitarianism, where rank and title matters increasingly little. Where homogeneity and class is supplanted by diversity and multiidentity.

Suddenly we are confronted by a profusion of styles, ethnicity and brands. We are all - in the workplace, at play, at school, even within the privacy of our own home -progressively multiviewed, multilingual, multivalued, multifaceted and multichannelled.

A Hypersociety now swarms through and around us all......

Emerging Hypergovernment.

Government ideology, once obstinate and biased in the extreme. Idealism; them and us; you are wrong, I am right. The left verses the right, the middle takes on all. It was outright war.

But nowadays?.... Political dogma is all but dead. The potency of idealism is old and grey. So the absolute left steal ideas from the far right. The far right sits comfortably with the L-word. Ideas and all cells alike, have lost their sense of loyalty it seems. So communism adopts capitalist concepts to oil its wheels. Capitalism embraces socialism to soften its tone.

In a transdimensional reality, dogged political pragmatism pinches from wherever, whoever and whatever it must to achieve its ultimate aim - Hypergovernment.

The Power of Hyperscience.

Science, since its early origins, was held in separate, often totally isolated schools. The intellectual wars amid the disparate schools of thought that raged for hundreds of years, have at the very least slowed scientific discovery and innovation; at worst, stopped advance dead.

Now a sea change; a seed change even. At last the intellectual turf guarding is falling sway to the interconnection of ideas.

Ponder this:

To construct a new theory today, a hypothesis must stand with an astronomical number of findings, with many contradicting ideas. The reason? For a scientific discipline to reach maximum evolvability the number of idea interconnections needs to be very rich. As the number of connections goes up, so the possibilities for new discoveries increase.

And now think of this if you will:

To comprehend how life on earth emerged, you have to understand the complexity and systems theories; understand phase transition and thermodynamics; comprehend computational and information theory; grasp quantum and molecular mechanics; interpret microgeology, electro-magnetism and radioisotope decay physics.

You have to interconnect and interrelated each of these discrete science to begin to see how life may have emerged. Neglect or miss any of these disciplines and the answer to life remains a mystery.

The lesson:

Many of the most significant scientific breakthroughs, now and in future, will be a consequence of the interconnection of diverse and often unrelated scientific discoveries and innovation.

The New Hypereconomics.

Economic systems used to be exclusively rationalised and planned via giant macroblocks of data (income, interest, tax and unemployment).

It said that resources where so scarce that you could have one thing or the other, not both. It viewed national economies as autonomous, where outcomes were predictable and controllable.

But what happened? Well, the world began to interconnect on all levels, plans and markets fragmented, all expectations increased, then demand began to customise.

So the old way of managing and sustaining economies is defunct. The new way, the bright way, is the network way. Where billions-upon-billions of tiny variables chaotically swarm around each other interdependently. Where concrete fiscal value is an effect of synergy amongst such energetic dancing dependence. Where the most significant resources are imagination and knowledge, that are, in effect, limitless in scope and potential. Where your competitors become your partners, your customers, your stockholders all at one and the same time.

Hypereconomics is with us now.

Hyperlanguage

Human language, in a most rudimentary plan, first emerged around one million years ago.

Of course, since then language has continued to advance and diverge into many distinct lingua. But it is the rate and interconnection of change in language today that captures our attention here.

Knowledge of the fact that at least three-thousand distinct tongues have disappeared over a period of three generations, among with the cultures they represent, is perhaps softened by the associate fact that at least one-third of the words in any modern full volume English dictionary are less than twenty years old!

The reasons? In part due to the amazing pace of scientific progress and technological advance (bosson, toxinal, cynoacrolate, C++, hyperlinks, simplexity: new science simply need new words). Lately, global media and brands have spurred novel vernacular (digerati, MTV, yarhoo, raves, nike, nokia.

WAP textlife brings new gist (CU@10...!). Mass-mood changes due to shifts in social dynamics and habit require new words (Nanostalgia, the yearning desire to see a repeat of Star Trek that was only shown the day before. Ampathy, the ultra-intense feeling of unity people experience at a rave. And Edutainment, meshing of fun with learning.

Languages have also evolved because of mass migration (Brazilian-Portuguese is quite different to native Portuguese...why?...Neo-tribes means new ideas; new ideas needs new language).

Fundamentally, and most of all, languages have come and gone as a consequence of the multidimensional interconnection of words. For example, as English language flows across cultural boundaries it can not help but eat-up the colloquial phrases of say Hindi to produce a new language now known as Hinglish, often seamlessly combining two different tongues in mid-sentence, even mid-word.

English, the king of predatory lingua, preys on inflections and phrases from literally every known and available language on the surface of this planet. One hundred years or so from now there will dozens of version of English, each seen as a separate language in their own right.

As English interconnects and gobbles up more and more words, it changes and diverges, but will remain a ravenous predator. The result? From street slang to the edge of the arts, media, science and technology the diversity of languages and never been so multidimensional.

Or is it Meist?

Here are some words I heard via the BBC this week:

'Healthily.'

'Moslemist.'

'Pottable.'

Not withstanding the above post, at the other end of the spectrum the English language seems to going to pot (Pottable?).

On the BBC’s Six O’Clock News: ‘Eat Healthily.’ Which not so long ago used to be ‘Healthy eating.’

On the BBC‘s Politics Show: ‘He is a Moslemist.’ Which used to be ‘He’s a Moslem.’

On the BBC‘s Snooker Grand Prix: ‘The ball is Pottable.’ Which used to be ‘the ball might just go in the pot.’

New words that describe new issues are necessary and important (as above post). In fact, it's an occupational delight for me. I enjoy coining new words, playing with sentences, and jiving vernacular.

But come on. ’Healthily.’ ‘Moslemist.’ ‘Pottable.' You’ve godda be joking me, an'it.

Have you ever heard of a 'Christianist,' or 'Hinduist,' or 'Jewishist?' It's an insult.

The English language is blessed with aesthetically pleasing grammar and flowing prose. To bastardise any language in this inane way, is nothing less than sacrilege.

So please, I beg, please try to resist the influx of ‘***ables,’ and ‘***ists.’

Or is it ‘Meist.’

Click to See Bee Movie Clips.

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And talking about a play on words.

If you know me, you'll know my favourite insect is the humble bumble bee. Especially when they swarm. So when I heard about 'Bee Movie' I got excited (big kid).

Digital Terrestrial Broadcast: Not a Cock-up; but a Real Catastrophe Born of a Complete Lack of Foresight.

The big switch over has begun. UK Terrestrial TV is going digital.

How nice, how quaint.

You detect a hint of sarcasm.

No, it’s not sarcasm, it’s utter contempt.

Why?

Well the 20 years of planning (early meetings began way back in 1989) and the estimated £1 billion that has gone into R&D, infrastructure and switch over rollout is a complete waste and ultra-vein endeavour.

Why?

Nielsen's Law dictates exponential growth in Internet Bandwidth similar to the more established Moore's Law.

Comparing the two laws:

Moore's Law says that computers doubles in capabilities every 18 months: this corresponds to about 60% annual growth (or x100 over 10 years).

Nielsen's Law says that bandwidth doubles every two years (or x57 over 10 years).

Data supports Nielsen's Law:

The Internet backbone bandwidth in 1975 was on the order of 1000 bits per second (bps), by 1985 it was 1 million bps, by 1995 it had reached 100 million bps, and now in 2007 it is approaching 100 billion bps.

Going by the above trends, by the year 2014 most house holds in the UK will readily watch high definition documentaries, serials and films in real-time over the internet.

By 2018 high definition 3D TV programs with file sizes on the order of terra-terra bytes will be transferred in real-time over the Internet.

You wont want to get a signal over the airways, when you can plug your TV into the Internet and gain real-time, multiway, high definition TV and all that comes with it.

Terrestrial digital TV is biggest technological white elephant in recent history.

Failing the Way to Success!

People don’t like the word failure, let alone the actual outcome.

But tell that to nature.

Life has adapted to every calamity and catastrophe that has befallen the earth in the last 4 and half billion years.

So it's instructive that most of life’s ‘experiments’ are failures.

All species become extinct eventually. Most all mutations don't survive. Most all life’s designs don’t even get a chance to fail, because the don’t get a chance to live.

Yet the overall results are anything but a failure.

Nature has it all worked out. So what can we learn?

If you trip, blip, or bomb, take out a leaf from nature.

Try, fail, try, trip, try blip, try, bomb, try, learn, try, adapt, try, win....!

Promising Breakthrough Set to Revolutionise Crash Helmets and X-Sports Wear.

d3o (dee-three-oh) is a specially engineered material made with intelligent molecules.

The molecules flow with you as you move, but on shock the molecules lock together to absorb the impact energy.

Head protection has conventionally been provided by helmets with hard outer shells where the inner structure is energy absorbent and often sacrificed.

Although the protective qualities of tradiational helmets are undeniable, their cumbersome nature has prevented widespread adoption in many sporting activities.

d3o technology allows helmets to deliver better performance and fit, and for the creation of a completely new type of flexible headwear.

The 3do material is impression moulded into custom sheets, between 4mm & 10mm thick, then assembled (slid) between the headwear's inner and outer fabric.

The relatively thin d3o material is hardly noticable in situ, resulting in stylish, street credible merchandise....

....Skaters, Snowboarders and BMXers, et al, will love it!

d3o Video Link

d3o Impact Material Impression Moulding.

Pleo: Interactive, Emotions Learning Robotpet.

Tipped to be a big Christmas winner, Pleo is a ‘Robpet’ that mimicks a one-week old infant Dinosaur from the Jurassic period.

Design engineers @ UGOBE Inc have studied the extinct Camarasaurus, which lived in giant fern forests.

Pleo incorporates all the basic traits of autonomous life, specifically engineered to mimic a living animal and relate to the owner on a personal level.

Pleo is equipped with senses for sight, sound, and touch; learns as he explores his environment; exhibits genuine reactions to sensory stimuli; and eventually exhibits a unique personality.

He can feel joy and sorrow, anger and annoyance, and when Pleo is tired, he will become drowsy, goes to sleep, and even dreams.

Two or more Pleos will recognize one another. Be careful though. They can transmit colds to each other. Achoo! Pleo even sneezes!

Quote of the month:

'How do I know what I think until I see what I say.'

C.K. Chesterton.

Meaning?

Test the idea! Re: Experiments, Prototypes, Pilots, Dialogues, Models, Walk-abouts, tours, visits, go f***ing see it for God's sake!

Wonna do Six-Sigma QA, go to Motorola.

Wonna do rapid product development, visit HP Inkjet Inc.

Wonna do something new, original, breakthrough, radical, transformative, first to the world? Then: '...see what I (you) say!'

Sceince Friction: Radical Tribology Breakthrough may lead to Friction Free Micro Machines.

Why do your hands heat-up when you rub them together? Why do you have to change your car tires ever 50,000 miles or so?

The answer, in the main, is found through the science of Tribology (or the study of friction). Rub things together and they heat up and eventually wear away to nothing.

There’s a lot of engineering science behind understanding friction. I wont go there.

What I will do here is talk about an area of high concept friction science called the Casimir Force (CF), which - without getting to technical - causes an attractive affect in the space between atom, so that molecules are drawn together as that move or flow across each other.

As the CF attracts each moving atom they rub together, thus heating and causing atoms to displace. Hence friction; hence wear.

But what if you could turn off the CF? Well, you get no friction, no ware! Things wouldn’t wear out. You wouldn’t have to change your car tires. Cells in your body wouldn’t rub together. You wouldn’t were out.

But what if you could reverse the CF in a controlled way? Atoms would move away from each other. You’d get levitation.

Science fiction (friction) right?

No!

Scientists at the University of St Andrews have created an 'incredible levitation effect’ by engineering the CF so that it repels instead of attracts.

Their discovery could ultimately lead to frictionless micro-machines with moving parts that levitate. But they say that, in principle at least, the same effect could be used to levitate bigger objects too, even a person.

The force is due to neither electrical charge or gravity, for example, but the fluctuations in all-pervasive energy fields in the intervening empty space between the objects and is one reason atoms stick together, also explaining a “dry glue” effect that enables a gecko to walk across a ceiling.

Because the CF causes problems for nanotechnologists, who are trying to build electrical circuits and tiny mechanical devices on silicon chips, among other things, the team believes the feat could initially be used to stop tiny objects from sticking to each other.

Micro and even nanomachines could run smoother and with less or no friction at all.

Google's 9 Steps to Innovation.

Innovation, not instant perfection. Google believes in launching new products and ideas early and often, rather than trying to perfect those ideas behind closed doors before releasing them to the public. Then, customer feedback and popularity prove which projects are most successful.

Share everything you can. Small teams that communicate openly have proved the best results for Google. They believe in transparency in the workplace so that everyone knows what everyone else is working on. (Scary, right?) They have a computer program where employees can look up names and see what others are working on, so if they have an idea to contribute they know who to talk to.

You’re brilliant, we’re hiring. When Google interviews employees, Lecinski said they set the bar very high. They focus more on hiring generalists rather than specialists, as they have found generalists are more valuable and can contribute ideas to different parts of the company.

Allow employees to pursue their dreams. Lecinski said Google allows its employees’ time in a 70/20/10 model. Seventy percent of the time they work on Google’s search and ad flagships; they develop new programs like Images, Desktop and Finance 20 percent of the time; and 10 percent of the time employees are allowed to pursue their own high risk/high reward projects. Lecinski said Google Earth is a result of one of those projects.

Ideas come from everywhere. Sometimes Google turns to the public for new ideas. The Google mastheads, which are customized for holidays and events, are taken from non-employee submissions. One of the mastheads was designed by a 12-year-old girl.

Don’t politic – use data. With all the ideas floating around Google, the best way to determine which may work is to use supportive data. As Lecinski said, “Data beats opinion.”

Creativity loves restraint. Again, Google has to have some way to keep all of the employee-generated ideas streamlined towards the company’s goals. “Let people explore, but set clear boundaries for that exploration,” Lecinski said.

Get users and usage – the money will follow. This goes back to one of Lecinski’s larger points, “respect for end users,” but is a principle to follow in any form of business. He says to focus on creating things that are innovative and useful for people, not something you can sell.

Don’t kill projects, morph them. Google doesn’t waste ideas. Instead, they try to change and transform them into something the company finds useful.

Hydrogen Fuelcells (HFC): So You Thought Wide Spread Application is Years Away?

A demonstration of a 'General Hydrogen Inc' fuelcell powered forklift truck has proved successful. The fuelcell pack is applicable to any electric drive vehicle.

The hybrid fuelcell system consisted of proprietary components in combination with a fuelcell stack, an ultra-capacitor bank, and hydrogen storage equipment.

The demonstration proved that fuelcell technology is more practical, more efficient, more cost effective and safer than conventional electric battery or diesel systems.

Trivial? No. A key indicator that HFC technology is already diffusing.

Whoosssh.... There goes me Nan on her Granny Mobile!

Click on picture to see design.

General Hydrogen Inc's Prototype Fuelcell Service System Set Up.

A Medieval 21st Century?

Buck Rogers was way out!….

For 60 percent of the world‘s population, the 21st century is medieval.

2 billion people live in squatter cities, 2 billion more live in countries dominated by ideas over a 1000 years old!

How Near is Robbie Robot?

Robotics is already a £16 billion market.

Surprisingly, 60% of market value today is in marine robotics - not industrial automation!

By the trends:

Domestic, but expensive, humanoid robots will hit the market before 2015.

Buy 2020 they'll be ubiquitous, at a price comparable to a small second family car.

By 2025, you get 'demestibots' from Tesco. High-end robots that start to match human emotional/intellectual intelligence will be used in war theatre.

How will you feel about your Robot?

The most effective way to find and destroy a land mine is to step on it.

This has bad results, of course, if you're a human. But not so much if you're a robot and have as many legs as a centipede sticking out from your body. That's why Mark Tilden, a robotics physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, built something like that.

At the Yuma Test Grounds in Arizona, the autonomous robot, 5 feet long and modeled on a stick-insect, strutted out for a live-fire test and worked beautifully, he says.

Every time it found a mine, blew it up and lost a limb, it picked itself up and readjusted to move forward on its remaining legs, continuing to clear a path through the minefield.

Finally it was down to one leg. Still, it pulled itself forward. Tilden was ecstatic. The machine was working splendidly.

The human in command of the exercise, however -- an Army colonel -- blew a fuse.

The colonel ordered the test stopped.

Why? asked Tilden. What's wrong?

The colonel just could not stand the pathos of watching the burned, scarred and crippled machine drag itself forward on its last leg.

This test, he charged, was inhumane.

Fly little Fly!

A life-size, robotic fly has taken flight at Harvard University. Weighing only 60 milligrams, with a wingspan of three centimeters, the tiny robot's movements are modeled on those of a real fly.

While much work remains to be done on the mechanical insect, the researchers say that such small flying machines, in swarming 1000s, could one day be used as spies, or for detecting harmful chemicals, and even clean your house dust up.

An Age of Continuous Discontinuity.

Charles Handy the Author, Businessman and Philosopher said back in the 1980s that we are entering ‘The Age of Discontinuity.’

He meant that both technological and social changes will be so uncompromising and dramatic that competitive contexts and the pace at which we have to learn and adjust to will be a wrenching experience.

The evidence since the 80s is plan to see. The Internet is radically changing every kind of media: TV, Radio, Advertising, Music, Retail, Purchasing, Cost Centres, Disintermediation, etc, etc.

Hyperinnovation is transforming what we consider the car, the bank account, energy supply, the telephone, the camera, food stuff, and even high finance to be.

But I think Handy didn’t go far enough. Because what’s around the corner lies what I call The Age of Continuous Discontinuity.

There are dozens of life changing technologies now in the lab, ready for commercialisation.

1. Nanofacturing will allow you to print out domestic products in the comfort of your own home.

2. Hydrogen Fuelcells at a price point we can all afford.

3. Super efficient and cheap solar panels that will supply of you domestic energy needs.

4. Skycars and Skyways are not on the drawing board, but functional prototypes have been in test for years.

5. Dozens of different designs of domestic humanoid robots exists designed to help the infirm, elderly, and do the washing up.

6. Immersive high definition virtual reality and telepresence will enable you to visit far of places, again in the comfort of your own home.

7. Strong Artificial Intelligence that will one day soon surpass human intelligence, giving us the capability to explore ideas, science and technology that will have no conception of at present.

All of these technologies and the associated sociological ramifications will be here before 2025. Are you ready for The Age of Continuous Discontinuity?

'Knowledge is power.'

Sir Francis Bacon.

'Innovative knowledge is ultimate power.'

Chris Harris.

The Late Youth Boom.

Look at Mick Jagger and Tom Jones! Look at Raquel Welch and Jone Collins! Something’s going on! 60 (for many) is the new 40s! The over 60s are growing massively in terms of population, wealth and longevity.

More 60 years young hit the golf course than any other age. The buying power (capital and spare cash) of the over 60s is almost 3 times that of the 30 somethings in the UK. The dominate market in the USA is the mature market.

Between now and 2012 the 18-44 age group will decline by 1%. 55+ will increase by 21%. 55-64 will increase by 47%.

The mean natural mortality rate age in the developed west for males is 76, and 78 for females. Only, the overall stat is skewed, as nearly 30% now make into their 90s. For the first time in human history the are more over 60s than under 16s.

Implications?: Design and market for youthful 60+ year olds with bad backs (et al). Rolling Stones concerts 2010, even 2020! Yes, even more golf courses.

Interview (Part 2) with Cathy Lewis, CEO Desktop Factory: Will the Final Frontier soon be in your Kitchen?

CH. Let’s talk about the future..... Do you foresee the day when a $1000 3D printers will hit the market?

CL. Not only do we see a day when 3D printers are available to the mass market for under $1K – we intend to lead the revolution and insure the democratization of 3D.

CH. Does that prospect excite you? For example, what do you think the total annual market volume/value for such a low cost 3D Printer will be?

CL. We have already seen massive pent up demand for a $5K 3D printer - so the potential in the consumer market will be significant, well into the billions of dollars. The best way to think of this opportunity is as being roughly analogous to the impact low cost laser printers have had on us over the past 15 years.

CH. What about the market, the kind of custom? What will be its impact here?

CL. This is the 3D printer for the rest of us – read – all of us! At under $1K you will see a 3D printer in every home and one day we will creatively disrupt the manufacturing value chain – enabling the consumer to buy a design, a part or tool from the web and print it at home. Just imagine the positive impact that will have on green house gas emissions, etc., etc. And, in terms of innovation - the heart beat of our global competitive advantage – this 3D spark will absolutely ignite a new era of innovation and creativity.

CH. What opportunities lay ahead for material feedstock providers?

CL. Clearly the consumables for this market are every bit as important as the STL file and the printer. We will provide a low cost, safe nylon based powder as our first material which results in a very robust, durable part. However, we know that additional types of consumable materials will help grow the market and the applications potential for 3D. I think the various manufacturers of these types of materials have an excellent opportunity to work with companies like Desktop Factory in developing the next generation of exciting 3D output materials.

CH. Is there anything else that you think the reader should know about DF?

CL. We are a small but dedicated team of professionals from two major domains – 2D and 3D printing – who have a powerful and compelling vision to deliver 3D printing to the masses – after all it is a 3D world – we should be enabled to print that way!

How can we Manage 21st Century Complexity with 16th Century Thinking?

Sill far to many executives I meet use thought morphologies a kin to Newtonian Mechanics and Cartesian Logic. But that kind of linear - A-to-B-to-C- to-D - thinking cannot possible cope in an age of interconnections, where counterintuitive, paradoxical, and down right surprising outcomes occur.

Execs spend months on quantitative business analysis, months on developing five year plans, months on organisational planning; yet at the end of the day the numbers don’t meet the market realities of double gate exponential technological innovation acceleration, the industry actuality of Hyperinnovation, of pip squeak outfits creating disruptive innovations that knock the corporate skyscrapers bandy.

How can the big manufacturing corporations compete when single mums begin to print out 3D objects (spoons, cups, teapots and babies bottle) in the kitchen at home, for near next to nothing?

In fact this counterintuitive, paradoxical and surprising, soon to be reality, is so alien to linear-logic that it either scares the living daylights out of many an executive or is so off the chart that they don‘t (can’t) even perceive it.

Tight order and control is their mantra. Mention phrases like emergent teams, swarms systems, open culture, and you get that ‘evil gaze.’

If corporate executives are to see the future first, create competitive visions that create new billion dollar markets, mobilise the workforce as a dynamic self-organising system, then they need new and up to date ways of thinking.

Systems thinking is a good start. Multidimensional thinking is better. But will they convert to 21st century thinking? I don’t know.

Insult to Tom Brown's scholastic injury.

‘Education, Education, Education,’ is an insult to intelligence.

Can’t wait to hear Mr Gordon (Tom) Brown's take on cerebral input.

As Learning, Learning, Learning everywhere, wihout coersion, is now the norm.

Armageddon?

September 11 was essentially a collision of early 20th-century technology: the aeroplane and the skyscraper.

What do we do to prevent a collision of 21st-century technology: nanoweapons and earth?

I'm thinking.

The Girl Power Boom.

In the USA, Women’s collective spending power is larger than the whole of the German Economy. Worldwide its is $$$Trillions.

Look at the shopping mall. Count men Vs Women!

Who, on the whole, picks the family car (60%), home furnishing (94%), holidays (92%), long term new friends (80%), and even instigates home DIY projects (80%).

Who does the most communicating?: Emails (67%), SMS texts (88%), Christmas cards (93%).

Who holds the domestic purse (91%)?

Who works the longest hours (68%)?

And finally a painful one: who files for divorce (men a tiny 16%). Ouch?

Implications?: Design and market for women. Be really romantic to your wife!

Is the UK going through a new baby boom?

I live in Eastbourne, the once bone yard of the UK, where people went to retire (and die).

Not any more!

As I walk round Eastbourne I’m witnessing a baby boom. Thousands of little kids and babies swinging on mum's arm, swarming the place. I mean everywhere!

So I started to think why is this?

First: why did the baby boom, from the post war period up until the mid(ish) sixties, happen?

The experts tell that it was the new, post war, affluence. It gave people confidence to plan long term, so families boomed too.

Second: But aren’t we told that affluence is the biggest contraceptive of all?

Doesn’t look like it. Because Eastbourne has become a reasonably affluent town.

But third: The UK has (is) experiencing a long boom economy.

Well I'm dazed, because the baby boom is happen throughout the UK.

Women are choosing to have more babies than at any time since 1980, according to official figures which hint at the first baby boom of the 21st century.

And the fertility rate - the number of births per woman - rose from 1.8 babies per woman in 2005 to 1.87 in 2006, the fifth annual rise in a row and the most babies born in a single year since 1993, the Office for National Statistics say.

Or is it due to the fact that Cool Britania is more cosmopolitan, and thus more randy?

Making the impossible, possible!

By Kim S Cameron.

The most contaminated nuclear plant in the USA, Rocky Flats was an environmental disaster and the site of rampant worker unrest. Although it was estimated that it would take 70 years and $36 billion to clean up and close the facility, something stunning happened.

Now on its way to becoming a wildlife refuge, the project is running 60 years ahead of schedule and $30 billion under budget.

In Making the Impossible Possible, Kim Cameron explains how this remarkable performance was achieved — and how it can be replicated. Using numerous first-hand accounts and public records, Cameron draws a number of leadership guidelines that can be applied to any business.

This fascinating and thoroughly researched case study concludes by revealing the ten leadership principles responsible for the Rocky Flats turnaround — and in doing so, provides a means for other organizations to harness the lessons of this astonishing success.

Somebody has just asked me 'What on earth is a Hypermovie?'

Lethal Die Hard Weapon: Mel Gibson and Bruce Willes joins forces to combat the Terminator!

The Long Good Friday with Bob Hoskins and Pierce Brosann escape the Jag, and combine?

Batman Vs Predator Vs the Joker Vs the Alien, all in one film!

Dr Who's TARDIS lands on the Star Trek Enterprise, both join forces to prevent the Darleks invading Romula!

Basically a Hypermovie criss-crosses conceptual story and character boundaries.

The Hypermovie meme is yet to take off. But it will.

Would you like to see Lethal Die Hard Weapon?

Again, watch Batman Dead End.

Watch 'Batman Dead End' on Chris TV8 (8 mins). It's a home brew Hypermovie with dramatic surprises.

Watch 'The Cat Came Back' on Chris TV7 (7 mins). It's one of the funniest cartoons ever made (far to good for kids).

First to the World 3D Micro Scale Multiplicative Printer.

Fuji's world’s first MEMS-based piezo cartridge printer
enables low-cost high-precision jetting of complex
organic, inorganic and metallic fluids.

Micron scale products and sub-assemblies such as flexible multilayer PCBs or flexible flat screen displays can now be produced in one hit, layer-by-layer at a significantly lower cost and higher quality.

Interview (Part 1) with Cathy Lewis, CEO Desktop Factory: Will the Final Frontier soon be in your Kitchen?

I’ve been waiting for nearly 30 years for it. A low cost, easy maintenance 3D printer. Picture this. Your washing machine door handle cracks and breaks ‘damb;’ your mobile’s battery cover gets lost ‘blast!’ No problem. Just print it out a new one via your home ‘Desktop Factory,’ right on the spot, instantly for a few pence. And this isn’t some far off Star Trek vision. It’s happening right now.

I’ve just had a eye opening chat with Cathy Lewis, CEO of Desktop Factory (DF) Inc (yet another breakthrough tech start-up from California based IdeaLab). Cathy told me about an amazing new gadget DF are about to bring to market - the gadget of all gadgets in fact - that everyone will want to have in their homes: a kitchen/desktop size 3D printer, for a mere £495. Want one? (http://www.desktopfactory.com).

Here’s how the talk went.

CH. ‘Cathy, let’ talk about the present…. Desktop Factory Inc’ is yet another exciting venture out of IdeaLab. I would not be the first to say that there seems to be an acute, even magical sensibility toward future markets at IdeaLab. Would you like to kick off by describing IdeaLab’s culture, what is the magic, what’s the secret?’

CL. The IdeaLab secret is multi-faceted and not always easy to describe. But I will, after knowing them for a year, posit my best explanation.

The first facet is the founder – Bill Gross. He is an amazing person – genius – visionary – optimist – inventor - environmentalist, father, husband, leader – who sleeps about 2-3 hours a night and then brings all of his talent and energy to the lab each day. He traditionally comes up with the ‘idea’ from which a new company is formed.

The next facet is the environment – new companies and smaller existing companies share space in a converted, rambling, brick warehouse with exposed ceiling / and ventilation with only half walls – no offices - to separate people. Mix this with free coffee, beverages, espresso, fresh fruit, Monday bagels and highly subsidized lunches 3 days a week served up from strategically located ‘bars’ around the building. This combination stimulates the continuous exchange of new ideas and acts as a magnet to brainy young engineers from the likes of CalTech, Harvey Mudd and MIT who just want to be associated with Idealab at some point in their careers.

I consider another facet of Idealab magic to be the high caliber board members who represent Idealab and their various companies, the CEOs and the tremendous support organizations available to each of the companies. From IT and legal to HR and Marketing Communications functions – early stage companies receive full or partial support from all of these groups enabling the entrepreneur to focus on what matters most – delivering their product and/ or service to the market.

And a final facet – but equally important is ownership. People want to chase the dream – to be a part of something new and novel that will be disruptive and eventually provide them with a financial reward commensurate with the effort expended. And given the high success rate of Idealab progeny – we have no problem enlisting leadership talent!
This is the Idealab mystique!

CH. You are about to launch a new product called the ’Desktop Factory.’ How would you describe the technology, process, materials, part sizes, and print speed?

CL. This product is perhaps the most aptly named I have been associated with in my career. We have a simplified 3D printer with a totally intuitive Graphical Under Interface (GUI) that is both home and office friendly. Whether you want to ‘print’ a physical object from a CAD STL file, a file you download from the web or an object created with a 3D scanner – just send the file to your Desktop Factory and within a few hours we will render the object for your use. BTW, even the most expensive machines take a few hours to print an object.

Our process leverages heat and pressure, similar to a laser printer. We coat a roller with a thin layer of powder and ‘draw’ the image onto the roller with a halogen lamp. The image is then rolled off onto a build platform and the roller returns to begin the process again. In between layers the build platform is raised up against a heated platen to insure that each layer if fully fused and adheres one to the other. At the conclusion you simply reach into the front windowed door on the printer and remove your part.

Support structures are calculated and the provided automatically by our highly intuitive front end software and then can easily be removed by hand when you part requires them.

Our build envelope is smaller than some at 5X5X5 but supports about 75% of the objects built today based upon market research. Finished parts are quite robust – they can be drilled, tapped, milled, etc. and we have painted a few just to show how great they look fully finished.

CH. Can you give me an idea of the total cost of ownership of DF, say, for a small design house/household.

CL. We know that DF will have the lowest available TCO on the market. Besides the purchase price I have noted the only additional costs are up in the earlier portion of this document. We know that current consumables range from $2.50 - $6.00 per cubic inch and we continue to target $1.00 per ci.

CH. When is the first shipment of the DF expected?

CL. Late 2007 – we have over 275 units on order right now!

CH. Who will be your customers?

CL. We have received orders and requests to place orders from every possible customer type – hobbyist, self employed artists/designers, aerospace firms, Art Institutions, major medical centers, jewelry designers, junior high schools, 3D Service Bureaus, Trade Tech Schools, fortune 500 companies, game companies and 1 or 2 home users . . . .

CH. How are you going to roll the product out geographically? Will you be setting up overseas divisions.

CL. We will launch initially in the US late this year. We hope to go international by the end of 2008 though various partners and distributors.

CH. Are there any plans to float Desktop Factory Inc. on the stock exchange?

CL. We are privately held today which provides a great deal of flexibility and allows us to move quickly but plan for the long term. There will be pressure undoubtedly in the future for an IPO - but having been a corporate officer in a public company both pre and post Enron - I must admit that I am enjoying the strategic advantage of private enterprise.

Moller Skycar.

Using a principle similar to that of the British Harrier jump jet, the Moller Skycar volantor incorporates a patented thrust deflection vane system that redirects thrust, enabling it to hover or to takeoff and land vertically from almost any surface.

This capability plus the added safety of ducted fans makes it ideal for a wide variety of commercial pplications.

These include private and charter air travel, express delivery, news gathering, border patrol, police and fire work, and search and rescue, to name just a few.

See Chris TV1 for latest demos!

Sony's humanoid robot QRIO is getting access to a Tera-Flop Computer Cluster.

Sony is supposedly working on a project to connect the QRIO via high-speed network to a 250 Computer Cluster. The company aims to enable QRIO to make its own decisions.

See him and his pals dance on Chris TV6 below!

ASIMO continues to grow up.

ASIMO has come a long way since Honda started development almost 2 decades ago. There are several videos demonstrations on the Web (two are shown on CHIRS TV2).

The videos show how ASIMO can walk and run while turning as well as dynamically balance itself in response to external forces, i.e., a person pushing or pulling ASIMO. ASIMO is also shown kicking a ball and walking up and down a flight of stairs.

Honda’s future plans for this technology include developing it as a helper robot for the elderly including the ability to hand objects such as medication to them

An innovative graphics driven web search engine.

Snap.com is a new generation of search engine, out from IdeaLab, that delivers superior relavance and rich interactive listings to broadband users, and offering risk-free, flexible Cost-Per-Action advertising with unmatched ROI to advertisers.

Snap's Ultra Search toolbar lets users view multiple search results at once and allows easy access to multiple search engines, popular sites, browser favourites and even e-mail, contacts and files.

I think this is winner. I use SNAP now instead of Google.

See snap.com, download, and try. It's as simple as that.

It's here!

The first low cost 3D visual display.




Provision's display systems represent a revolutionary technology that provides the projection of high resolution holographic like 3D aerial images into space detached from any screen, without any glasses. The ‘HoloVision’ line of display systems are being used in many market channels including Electronic Transaction Terminals and Point of Sale Advertising Networks.

The Next Competitive Advantage: ‘Radical Belief!’

Your competitors are more than likely NOT to believe the radical breakthroughs in technological innovation I talk about. Especially the ones that will be here within 20 years.

Here’s a bunch:

Radical life extension technologies that rewire the human body’s metabolism will enable the average 50 year old today (2007) to have the physic and mental stamina of a 35 year old (of today) within 20 years.

The average individual will print-out/synthesize many kinds of consumer gadgets in the comfort of their own home. That’s mobile phones, TV remote controls, motor bike spare parts, and a new out fit for a Saturday night out: tie, shirt, jacket, kilt, sporran, jockstrap and shinny boots.

Most families will be putting their name down for a second Skycar. It will be customisable, most parts will also be instantly produced at home.

Domestic robots will go on strike, as a result of their civil liberties being undermined. The word ‘Slave’ rears its ugly head again. ‘Oh dear’ we shout, as our gardens, houses and washing-up piles up.

DO YOU BELIEVE ANY OF THIS?

But that’s the point. Most of your competitors don’t or wont either!

So it comes down to belief - ‘RADICAL BELIEF.’

If you are ready to both embrace and make these radical ideas work (and zillions of others) then you have one hell of a competitive advantage.

Q.E.D: Radical Belief is the new form of competitive advantage.

‘Sir, stop making those preposterous and fraudulent claims at your investors… If you continue I’ll throw you in Jail.’

Supreme Court Judge, 1913, when Lee D Forest told his shareholders that his company (RCA) would soon be able to transmit voice across the Atlantic.

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‘Bollocks! It’s not even science fiction. It’s fucking madness.’

The UK’s Chief Scientist retort when I told him that an average US Marine core will be able to swarm and run at Olympic sprint speeds for 15 minutes at a time by 2025.

Is Right First Time Innovation a False Economy?

Think about it?

You put all that effort rooting through a design with a fine toothed and conscientious comb (weeks, even months on end), then you make the physical prototype and find a dozen errors: five tolerance clashes, the embeded code makes the LCD flicker, a PCB lug doesn’t align, a catastrophe component failure, and so on.

And don’t any of you seasoned engineers (manager and non-manger) tell me this hasn’t happened to you.

But this is a mere surface issue, underneath belies much deeper consequences.

Right first time enforces an anti-risk culture. If the edict is right first time and you get something wrong, you are going get beaten up not only by the boss, but by your peers as well (it reflects on them, you are now the risk).

So what happens?

You make sure you get it right first time.

And how do you do that?

You don’t take any risks, don’t try anything new, don’t push the envelop.

And what does that mean?

It means nothing new, zero innovation, zero learning, and zero competitive advantage.

And what does that mean?

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'The gulf between what engineers are actually creating today and what ordinary people will believe is significant.'

Joel Gerreau, in Radical Evolution.

‘The Origins of Hyper.’

The original ancient Greek definition of Hyper is a prefix meaning ‘above and beyond.’ However, things have evolved (above and beyond). In physics it can now stand for many (multiple) dimensions. The Internet has also moved the idea on, meaning many interconnections. Some examples:

Hypercube is a cube with more than three planar. It’s possible to catch a glimpse of a hypercube’s geometry in a computer simulation showing its four-dimensional rotating shadow. The shadow is 3D - weird!.

Hyperinnovation in the business context means the multidimensional interconnection and successful introduction of novel ideas (my definition).

Hyperlearning refers not merely to the extraordinary speed, scope and magnitude of learning, but the unprecedented degree of interconnectivity across minds, knowledge, media, experience and technology (you are engaged in n-learning right now!).

Hyperlink is a reference/navigation element in HTML documents that takes the user to another section in the document, or another document on the WWW.

Hyperspace is ten-dimensional space-time based on superstring theory.

Hypertext overcomes some of the limitations of written text, making possible a dynamic organization of information through multiple links and multiple interconnections via hyperlinks.

Five Things You Didn't Know I'm Bad At:

1. Remembering names and long numbers.
2. Singing.
3. Getting up really early.
4. Hiting the target when I pee.
5. Telling jokes.

Five Things You Didn't Know I'm Good At:

1. Dancing, bodypoping and spinning on my head.
2. Cookery.
3. My take on painting modern art.
4. Off the cuff funny quips.
5. Carpentry.

Now don't you o'l feel better for knowing all this!

Churn, baby, churn.

Lower cost Rapid Prototyping (RP) kit is enablng a new design strategy of high-frequency testing and redesign.

Rather than wasting time trying to perfect a design and produce a single prototype to show customers, product designers are using rapid prototyping technology to create simple 'first-concept' models of their ideas.

If the customer wants to change something, they can easily go back to churn out a new one without having lost much time or money in the process.

While this cycle of repetitive failure may be both tiring and demoralizing for both the customer and product designers, it certainly now seems necessary to embrace it and very helpful to be successful in either field.

Beam me up Scotty!

Desktop Factory Price-Performance Breakthrough.

IdeaLab's Desktop Factory (DF) Inc. is launching a 3D Printer at a breakthrough price point of £2,500.

Cathy Lewis, CEO of DF, told me that by 2012 the 3D printer will be in the shops at a price point of £495.

The 3D printer will produce low cost, non-toxic, composite nylon prototypes the size of today' mobile cellphones in just under an hour.

Testimonials for: Hyperinnovation.

Rudi Ruggles, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young: ‘Wonderful… combining cutting edge science and management practices to produce a new management model, one that not only take advantage of, but celebrates the richness of connectivity.’

John Mans, Fellow, Chartered Management Institute: 'Organisational structures developed to meet the stable environmental conditions of the past may well not be able to cope fully with the demands now being made....a clear warning to both individuals and organisations to the complexities of the moder business world....the mix of approaches is well tailored to today’s new circumstances and provide an excellent starting point for managers needing to develop strategies in an interconnected world.’

Imagination is not only more powerful than knowledge, it cannot be measured by the yard.

'In a prosperous long boom, anything is possible, but nothing is certain!'

Kevin Kelly (see blog friends).

What is Hyperinnovation (example 1)?

Think of the latest Nokia cellphone, the N95 (See picture). Is it a video camera or personal assistant; a music centre or communications tool; a games consol or dictaphone; a book or television; a musical instrument or credit card; a remote controller or word processor; a front door key or portal to the world?

Ask Nokia....In fact ask Sony… Ask Apple... Ask Virgin. And they will give you the a similar muse:
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'As bandwidth grows and technology shrinks toward the invisible, both concept and functionality increasingly interconnects and expands toward the multidimensional.'