Liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) is the no waste, super safer nuclear technology that uses an abundant fuel called thorium. China is building one and for good reason. Thorium fueled nuclear reactors should be cheaper by design, take up less space, and only create insignificant amounts of hazardous waste.
My guess is that the fossil fuel and renewables lobby will do all they can to stop the development of LFTR.
Can't think of a single reason why people will be needed for the vast majority of mass manufacturing within 15 years.
Related [Automated Mass Manufacturing]
People choose to get an iPhone, while people settle for Android.
Android, Apple, iOS | in Observations Steve Jobs's greatest achievement is showing us how to live life.
Apple, Steve Jobs | in Other
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There is no doubt that currently Tim Cook is the best person to run Apple in the short term. Apple also has the best executive team in the world and has several major products in the pipeline so the company will fine for the next few years. However in the long haul Apple is at serious risk of losing their way if Tim Cook remains as the CEO.
Steve Jobs has many exceptional talents including marketing and understanding of design, but his most important skill his incredible vision for products. Steve Jobs is so involved in the product development process that he has his name on patents for nearly all the major products that have come out of Apple in the past decade. He had the vision to know that the iPad, which was designed before the iPhone, was not ready for prime time and developed the iPhone first. This is an example of a situation where Tim Cook will not have the instincts to know what to do.
Tim Cook, for all of his talents, has shown little indication that he can serve Apple in the same product capacity. Apple is not an operations company and will be ill served without the right type of genius at the helm.
Tadashi Ushiroda
Vic Gondotra's story about a phone call from Steve Jobs further illustrates my point.
"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve.
"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"
Tim Cook would never make that phone call.
Startups are often advised to iterate quickly and that they should fail fast. The commonality of the two pieces of advice is that success for startups requires quick adaptation.
Many startups operate in an area that overlaps with a larger, better resourced competitor. Thus one of the key ways a startup can gain advantage is to compete in a way that places their competitors at a disadvantage. Large companies are pressured by shareholders to chase growth and seek products that can be larger than their last hit product. Consequently the cost of failure for these projects are even higher leading these companies to spend more time on analysis and research which slows down product development. For startups, the cost of failure is low and they can develop their products at a far faster rate. Part of the low failure cost is that a startup’s user base is also more tolerant of unpolished products especially if the product is new and cutting edge.
A startup’s user base is also usually far more active than regular customers in terms of wanting to communicate with the startup. This is why leveraging your user base as part of your product development process is a viable tactic. This idea of quick adaptation ties in with my previous post about optionality, as quick adaptation can be further enhanced by designing in flexibility in your products.
Adapted from “Iterate Again’” and “Fail Fast” by Colin Angle, CEO & founder of iRobot and Alex White, CEO of Next Big Sound.
One common message given to startups is that they should focus on doing one thing really well. Amazon took this to heart by focusing on books before diversifying to other products. Zappos has succeeded in a post Amazon era by focusing on shoes and superior customer service. Amazon has since then been able to branch out into new markets such as cloud computing and eBooks because they first established a firm foundation in books.
The online deal space has been particularly effective in getting startups to forget this advice and get companies such as SCVNGR to create their own offerings. It is easy to see why as companies such as Groupon have had great successful with revenues of over $750 Million and a forthcoming IPO. SCVNGR'S offering in the space is called LevelUp and differentiates from Groupon’s product by focusing on developing customer loyalty instead of offering one time deals. However the larger question is whether SCVNGR can effectively compete in this market with their attention divided between two completely different products. LevelUp shares much of the same executive staff with SCVNGR and is clearly not an independent entity.
If SCVNGR is serious about pursuing the online deal space they need to hire people so that LevelUp can run independently or shut it down and focus 100% on SCVNGR.
Adapted from "Focus" by Jared Polis Founder, TechStars
I have recently been playing around with Smarterer.com a website that tests a person’s skill on various subjects such as HTML and Microsoft Word. Users are scored between 0 and 800 points based on how accurately they answer questions that are created by other users. I was mainly interested Smarterer because I wanted to measure how well I would score on Microsoft Excel since I have used it extensively at work and at school and I was fairly confident that I would do well.
After taking exam for Excel several times I received a score of 166. One explanation for my low score is that the questions focused on feature knowledge instead of execution ability. Smarterer questions have a time limit of around 30 seconds which significantly limits the complexity of a question. I assume that the time limit is used to prevent people from answer questions by conducting internet. While feature knowledge is important it does not reliably reflect a person broader ability to use Excel.
To make the tests more meaningful Smarterer could have longer questions that require users to download a workbook with data and complete several tasks based on the supplied data. Other tasks could include searching for errors within a large spreadsheet that spans across several worksheets. If Smarterer.com wants to be considered as an authentic measurer of skill then they need to allow users to create better questions through their platform. As for now Smarterer is more novelty than a real measure of skill.
Would love to see an aftermarket conversion kit that works with smartphones and iPads. This technology would also be a great addition to science classrooms.
Microscope, Science | in Other Short Code GW8AZR9PRDH2
Foxconn has recently announced that they will be deploying a million robots to bolster their manufacturing capabilities over the next three years. This implies that the economics for replacing humans with robotics is becoming increasingly favorable and that they can be used for a wider range of tasks.
A quick look at the advanced state of robotics shows that most functions performed by hand can be replicated by machines. Robotics also has several advantages over their human counterparts such as no training costs and continuous operation.
If these robots gained the ability to move around on their own then it opens up the potential to have a fully automated mass manufacturing operation. For example a company could have a factory that could completely reconfigure itself to mass manufacture any product in a few hours. The robots could also be algorithmically driven to optimally position themselves for mass production. Best practices could be instantly be deployed through over the air software updates. These automated mass manufacturing plants would be highly efficient because a company could sell unused capacity to mass manufacture products for other companies with smaller needs.
On the downside, the increased automation of manufacturing most likely means that even highly skilled manufacturing work will eventually be performed by robots while reducing the jobs available for people.
"Apple vs. Android: The way it may go down"
If Apple puts HTC out of the Android device business, its next order would likely be to go after Samsung. Samsung is coming on strong in the mobile segment, due primarily to its Android business. Apple laid the groundwork to go after Samsung with the current suits for copying design, and the next step will be to file infringement suits for the same Android technology it has successfully defended in court against HTC. [ZDnet]
Microsoft currently receives $5 for each Android phone that HTC ships due to a recent settlement. Another legal loss to Apple could make it too expensive for HTC to continue making Android devices. This might mean that the manufacturer would need to switch to an alternate platform such as Windows Phone 7 or leave the smartphone market entirely. Since the litigation centers around the use of Android, other handset manufacturers may be similarly vulnerable to Microsoft and Apple's patent portfolio.
With Android seriously handicapped by legal issues, Windows Phone 7 might get an opportunity to rise from the ashes to become a major smartphone player.
