The disposable academic

One thing many PhD students have in common is dissatisfaction. Some describe their work as “slave labour”. Seven-day weeks, ten-hour days, low pay and uncertain prospects are widespread. You know you are a graduate student, goes one quip, when your office is better decorated than your home and you have a favourite flavour of instant noodle. “It isn’t graduate school itself that is discouraging,” says one student, who confesses to rather enjoying the hunt for free pizza. “What’s discouraging is realising the end point has been yanked out of reach.”

More....

http://www.economist.com/node/17723223?story_id=17723223

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | Video on TED.com

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | Video on TED.com

a great talk.\\

Future of IP (Intellectual property) and patent in Open Source World

Patent system created around a century before is already outdated. In today's world of Social communities and collaborative working it is very difficult to define the origin of an "Idea". It is true that intellectual property had created a capital investment revolution but at the same time it also create Grid Lock Economy. Michael Heller had identified this in his book very nicely. The IP system is mainly based on western and capital culture. The only main beneficiary for this system is capital not the individuals contributing to it. As new cultures will start taking strong position like Chinees and Indian, it will be difficult to hold this status quo for long time.

The benefits for the humanity will be huge if it is possible to deprecate IP system.

Nobel Prize honors super-strong, super-thin carbon

NEW YORK, (AP) --

It is the thinnest and strongest material known to mankind — no thicker than a single atom and 100 times tougher than steel. Could graphene be the next plastic? Maybe so, says one of two scientists who won a Nobel Prize on Tuesday for isolating and studying it.

Faster computers, lighter airplanes, transparent touch screens — the list of potential uses runs on. Some scientists say we can't even imagine what kinds of products might be possible with the substance, which hides in ordinary pencil lead and first was extracted using a piece of Scotch tape.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/10/05/international/i025338D19.DTL#ixzz11em8am7S

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene

Facebook identity management service

There are a lot of different consumer websites now offering login via facebook identity. Could be a good idea to have a single login but at the same time lose your personal data to facebook.

Skype offer internet over WLAN

Pay for internet view Skype account. This was experience on a BTOpenzone WLAN access point in UK.

Some interesting news 2

ROADMs Get Ready to Go Off-Grid
Finisar Corp. (Nasdaq: FNSR) has been able to flexibly control the wavelength assignments in its wavelength-selective switch (WSS) all along. But as of yesterday, the technology got a cool name: Flexgrid. more.....

Finisar news announcement

Netflix lets its staff take as much holiday as they want, whenever they want – and it works

At Netflix, the vacation policy is audaciously simple and simply audacious. Salaried employees can take as much time off as they'd like, whenever they want to take it. Nobody – not employees themselves, not managers – tracks vacation days.

So the company scrapped its formal plan. Today, Netflix's roughly 600 salaried employees can vacation any time they desire for as long as they want – provided that their managers know where they are and that their work is covered.

The same goes for expenses. Employees typically don't need to get approval to spend money on entertainment, travel, or gifts. Instead, the guidance is simpler: act in Netflix's best interest. It sounds delightfully adult. And it is - in every regard. People who don't produce are shown the door. "Adequate performance," the company says, "gets a generous severance package."

More...

Interesting Slide deck about corporate culture
Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture

Huawei describes smart memory chip

Very interesting news about new work on Network Processor.

Huawei Technologies discussed work on a first-generation smart memory that will pack 32 Mbytes of IBM embedded DRAM on a 45nm chip consuming 60W. It will include an array of packet processing elements to drive data rates at rates up to 100 Gbits/second and achieve at least 250 million memory accesses per second. more.....

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4206434/Huawei-smart-memory-chip

The End of Management

Very interesting article and i agree completely.

Business guru Peter Drucker called management "the most important innovation of the 20th century." It was well-justified praise. Techniques for running large corporations, pioneered by men like Alfred Sloan of General Motors and refined at a bevy of elite business schools, helped fuel a century of unprecedented global prosperity.

But can this great 20th century innovation survive and thrive in the 21st? Evidence suggests: Probably not. "Modern" management is nearing its existential moment. more.....

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704476104575439723695579664.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

T-Mobile: Google, Apple should pay us more to carry their services

OTT = Innovation = Users love it
SP (Mobile/Fix) = Defending them self = Users don't bother

The chief of T-Mobile's parent company Deutsche Telekom, Rene Obermann, argued in a German interview today that Apple and Google should pay more for higher-quality mobile data. iPhones and Android smartphones use much more data on the network, the executive told Manager Magazin, and should carry an extra surcharge if they need an especially fast or reliable network for music or video. Talks are already underway with at least Google. more......

Connected Planet analysis. more....

New Services from Service Providers

Comcast Plots OTT Stealth Attack

Telefonica VOIP over Mobile with Jajah

Networked address book game-changers: Microsoft Outlook, Facebook and more

Transparent Proxy/Cache

Known HTTP Proxy/Caching Problems RFC3143

New laser shoots beams of night

A laser that doesn't produce light would ordinarily be a failure. After all, the first two letters of laser stand for light amplification, not light reduction.

But a new laser created by scientists at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology and JILA, a joint institute of NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder, shoots beams of night instead of beams of light. The "dark pulses," as the NIST scientists ominously call them, create areas absent of light. more......

40G/100G Standard Ratified

40G/100G Standard Ratified
IEEE, the world's leading professional association for the advancement of technology, today announced the ratification of IEEE 802.3ba 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s Ethernet, a new standard governing 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s Ethernet operations. An amendment to the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard, IEEE 802.3ba, the first standard ever to simultaneously specify two new Ethernet speeds, paves the way for the next generation of high-rate server connectivity and core switching. more....

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=193449

Level 3 Slashes CDN Prices

Level 3 Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT) is lowering prices for content delivery network (CDN) services to match the same price customers pay for high-speed IP transport. more......

Level 3 Slashes CDN Prices

Some interesting news

Skype on Symbian Smartphones

Skype an advantage for Mobile phone

Is TV the next domino to fall?

ZTE Overtakes AlcaLu in Broadband Battle

Navteq Preps India Ad Launch

Best Buy video service links streaming, consumer electronics

Can a consumer electronics big-box retailer be a player in over-the-top video? Best Buy is putting its best foot forward in this market, launching its CinemaNow service for renting and buying TV shows and movies online. Web-based buying via CinemaNow has been available for awhile. What’s new this week are plans to make the service available via the same electronics products that Best Buy sells in its stores — basically a “connected devices” play by one of the bigger real-world outlets for the device part of that equation. more ..........

Amory Lovins on winning the oil endgame

Wholesale Media market

Here are some examples for Wholesale media market DVD/Kino/TV in Germany.

http://www.paramount.de/
http://www.kinowelt.de/
http://www.kochmedia.de
http://www.pandastorm.com/
http://www.constantin-film.de

Eric Giler demos wireless electricity - WiTricity

Wal-Mart buys Vudu; enters OTT delivery fray?

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) has agreed to acquire over-the-top (OTT) content provider Vudu, according to a New York Times report today. Terms of the acquisition weren’t released, but the Vudu screen shot companies reportedly informed Vudu’s Hollywood studios and TV manufacturers of the deal today. The acquisition could make Wal-Mart, already a leader in DVD sales, a formidable competitor in OTT service delivery as well. more ............

Mobile SP - Apple's appstore and IMS Dilemma

Until now the Mobile SPs was successful to hold their value added services and earn good money from their business. SMS was the biggest success but not an innovation, rather a by-product. As most of the voice tariffs are going flat Mobile providers are looking for alternatives. Currently almost all Mobile SPs are unanimously thinking that IMS (IP multimedia system) will provide additionally services for future earnings. Billion of dollars are planned for investment in this area. It is petty that this will be useless investment as the future of services will be coming from Internet based platforms and Mobile will face the same problem from OTT as today's fixed network.

Apple iphone was steroid for some of the Mobile SPs. Apple's appstore is the side effect of the steroid. Few more popular app stores like this and no body will care about the services from the Mobile provider. It is quite possible that in short time period Nokia, Samsung, Google and other mobile manufacture will follow the path of Apple. Some of the European Mobile providers are thinking about appstore as well but it will be same as the IPTV services offered from fixed network providers.

If Mobile and fixed network providers want to stay in the value chain they need follow a different path.

Future Telco services

Telefónica, Wikimedia Team Up
Wikimedia Foundation and Telefónica today announced a strategic partnership to improve access to Wikimedia educational and informational content in Latin America and Europe. The agreement will expand the reach of Wikimedia's projects, including Wikipedia, on multiple platforms through the development of customized applications for Telefónica's web portals, wireless handsets and television properties.

DT, Continental Develop Car Apps
The aim is to make the Internet and specific applications (apps) for drivers part of the standard equipment in all categories of vehicles.

Qwest bets on OTT with ZillionTV investment
Telco Qwest Communications (NYSE:Q) has always been an IPTV holdout, exploring hybrid video options instead. Today it added clarity to its video strategy with a $10 million investment in start-up ZillionTV in return for exclusive rights within its footprint to offer its video on-demand service to subscribers.

Patent vs. Open Source

Patent is a European (including USA) development in order to give special right to an inventor or company for a specific invention. First patents was issued in Europe in mid of 1400 but the actual boom started in the beginning of 1800. In the start of 19th century most of the European countries provided protection of an innovation with state laws. The first International treaty was signed in 1883 (Paris Convention) in order to provide protection across the boarders. Patent system is used for monetizing the inventions but at the same time it restrict the distribution of knowledge and technology.

Open Source on the other hand is a system used in the history for distributing knowledge. There was no patents for inventions done in China like paper, Arabs like algebra or by Indians like Cotton Gin.

The future will be more Open Source than current close system approach of IPOs. The main reason is the culture difference of new world powers (China, India) from European way of life. Culturally the people living in China, India, Brazil or other emerging markets are more open to share. For Example in India and China the cost of a Book is a cost of copying it with photo copy machine and cost of Software is the cost of copying a CD. The IPO model of innovation will not work in these communities. The innovation in these countries will be open and the speed of innovation will be accelerated due to the free availability of knowledge.

Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense - Open Source

In his video at the end he mentioned that he would like to put this as open source for every body to use. I am going to write on this topic next. Patent vs. Open Source, how the new words culture will change the way business is done today.

Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense

Patent increase in Emerging Markets

Patent_Office	2000	2006	2007	2008	% Increase from 2000 to 2008
Japan	125,880	141,399	164,954	176,950	41
United States of America	157,496	173,770	157,283	157,772	0
China	13,058	57,786	67,948	93,706	618
Republic of Korea	34,956	120,790	123,705	83,523	139
European Patent Office	27,523	62,780	54,699	59,819	117
Russian Federation	17,592	23,299	23,028	28,808	64
Canada	12,125	14,972	18,550	18,703	54
Germany	14,707	21,034	17,739	17,308	18
Australia	13,548	9,426	11,236	11,863	-12
France	11,274	13,788	12,112	10,811	-4
Mexico	5,527	9,632	9,957	10,440	89
Singapore	5,090	7,393	7,478	6,286	23
United Kingdom	8,253	7,907	5,930	5,360	-35
Hong Kong (SAR), China	2,737	5,146	4,839	4,001	46
India	1,263	7,539			497

Source: WIPO

China leads in Next Generation Technologies?

Internet of Things (IoT)

It is no secert that in the Manufacturing/Export space China had crossed industrial nations. Most of the analyst in Europe/USA thinks that in innovation we are still leading and China is far behind. I respectfully disagree, if you see the IPC (Patents) statistics it is quite visible that China and India are innovating with much faster pace as anticipated. IoT is just an other example, if you go to search on Google for IEEE_802.15.4 (IEEE standard for physical layer WPANs) there will be more sites in Chinese on the first page than in English.

Google Nexus One - a flop

I was expecting that Google will not succeed in the mobile market with their Nexus One. Following news confirm this:

Google Nexus One launch-week sales disappoint

Google is trying in alot of fields me-too kind of approach which is far away from real innovation. Until now the only success google bring was the search, the rest they bought (Youtube, blogger etc). I don't remmeber any service from google get real success otherthan their search engine. There are very few companies on the plant which can grow and still have in house innovation. Most of the big blues buy innovations from the market in the form of small or big accusations. The innovative minds get stuck in the organizational structures and don't get chance to do some thing new. These guys leave and do an other start-up for a second success. I had wrote a post before on innovation.

Inovations - Out of box thinking

An other addition to DECE

This will change the way we consume content. In the long run DVD/Blueray will disappear and the transport will be Internet for the video distribution.

An other addition to DECE

Cox to DECE

Cable Providers are going to be OTT

Cable Providers are going to be OTT, Comcast Provide their service to all broadband users

China overtakes Germany as biggest exporter

BEIJING – China overtook Germany as the world's top exporter after December exports jumped 17.7 percent for their first increase in 14 months, data showed Sunday, in another sign of China's rise as a global economic force.

Exports for the last month of 2009 were $130.7 billion, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. That raised total 2009 exports to $1.2 trillion, ahead of the 816 billion euros ($1.17 trillion) for Germany forecast by its foreign trade organization, BGA. more.....

Future of Digital Media over IP (Internet)

http://www.decellc.com/
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=186278

LOS ANGELES -- Today the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem LLC (DECE LLC), www.decellc.com, a coalition with support from every industry involved in digital entertainment, announced it has reached key milestones toward establishing the first open market for digital content distribution. In addition, DECE announced that 21 companies have joined the group which now includes 48 members across entertainment, software, hardware, retail, infrastructure and delivery.

The milestones announced today include:

• Agreement on a Common File Format, an open specification for digital entertainment, that will be used by all participating content providers, services and device manufacturers
• Vendor selection for and role of the Digital Rights Locker, a cloud-based authentication service and account management hub that allows consumers rights access to their digital entertainment
• Approval of five Digital Rights Management (DRM) solutions that will be DECE-compatible

Full technical specifications will be available in the first half of 2010.