hapa

blackhoodie: On Nov. 17, 2009, Earth will pass through the 1466...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:59:22 -0500

On Nov. 17, 2009, Earth will pass through the 1466 stream again, but this time closer to the center. Based on the number of meteors observed in 2008, Vaubaillon can estimate the strength of the coming display: five hundred or more Leonids per hour. The times provided are optimal view hours for PST, but the Leonid Meteor shower may last up to two days so there may be other times for optimal viewing.

(via randompictures)

I saw some a couple weeks ago.

davidkendall: One of my favorite photos of vintage New York...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:57:34 -0500

davidkendall:

One of my favorite photos of vintage New York City. This is Times Square, circa 1950.

(source unknown)

The CrunchPad: How different would the world be?

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:54:29 -0500

marco:

Fusion Garage, the soon-to-be-subsidiary of TechCrunch that’s building the OS for the CrunchPad, has a comically ridiculous motto:

What if the browser could boot without an OS? How different would the world be?

I’ll try to answer this question.

Technically, they’re probably just bundling a minimal, fast-booting OS (with a fast-booting BIOS, presumably, that can quickly wake from sleep) with a browser as the only application. They’re most likely not writing their own kernel or basic frameworks, since they can just use GNU stuff and Linux. And they’re definitely not writing their own browser, because that would be insurmountable by such a small team (and really stupid). They talk about running Flash, so it’s almost definitely just a stripped-down Linux distribution with the minimum support required to run a GUI, a custom-chromed Firefox (or Konquerer?), and an on-screen keyboard. So the OS is there — it just hopefully gets out of your way and you don’t need to know about it.

It seems like the worst combination of two products:

Netbooks: Extremely small, cheap, low-end laptops, usually running Linux.

Slate-type tablet PCs: Laptops without keyboards that run normal applications but rely on touch- or pen-input directly on their screens.

Geeks think both products are awesome and will take over the world, but neither have come close. The CrunchPad is much more like a slate-tablet than a netbook, but without the software flexibility. It has the terrible hardware of netbooks with the impracticality of not having a keyboard. If you’re going to spend $300 on a small, limited computer that you’ll only ever use for web browsing, I don’t see why you’d get a CrunchPad instead of a netbook. (An iPod Touch would probably be a much better choice than either.)

The presumption that this will change the world, at least on the software side, seems predicated on an implied shortcoming of browsers requiring operating systems. I don’t see why this is a problem, nor do I see how this would solve such a problem even if it existed.

Back to the original question: How different will the world be if they actually release this thing?

Well, Michael Arrington will have less money and a handful of geeks will have a $300 slate-netbook that they use a few times before it gets tossed in their gadget pile because everything it does is better accomplished with something else.

That’s about it.

dugange: On the corner of 80th and Columbus. If this is from...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:29:28 -0500

dugange:

On the corner of 80th and Columbus.

If this is from the West Side Highway accident, why would NYC do this? Was it definitely a drunk driving PSA? Or was it just placed there randomly? Why not take it to the tow impound? This is messing with my mind a little… clearly.

Electronic Medical Records Don’t Save Money

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:04:00 -0500

jayparkinsonmd:

hjluks:

“We analyzed whether more computerized hospitals had lower costs of care or administration, or better quality,” the authors wrote.

The results: “Hospitals on the ‘Most Wired’ list performed no better than others on quality, costs, or administrative costs.”

Himmelstein’s study is the second this week that disputes the benefits of EMR.

via healthleadersmedia.com
Does this surprise anyone? Disappointing, of course. Right now EMRs exist as siloed, tethered pockets of data and are being utilized primarily as an expensive, poorly designed, digital cousin of the paper record kept by most physicians.

Cost, quality and improved care will follow when these systems are better designed, OPEN SOURCE, more affordable, inter-operable and connected on a nationwide level. Then the API developer community will see to it that the data can be scrubbed and analyzed in a manner that can benefit everyone.

Also, don’t forget that medical data must be web accessible to the patient and follow the patient no matter where they go in the United States to receive care.

Until the patient owns their record, and applications for viewing and parsing that data (by doctors and patients) improve… all those fancy computers and databases installed at medical centers (and mandated by the government) is just raw infrastructure, and cost. Extracting value from that infrastructure is yet to come. It’s “highways vs. traffic” people. We won’t see service level improvements reliably until we learn to drive down the new roads being paved before us.

todayi: dugange: That’s effing blood, people. OMFG! :( Was...

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:31:00 -0500

todayi:

dugange:

That’s effing blood, people. OMFG!

:(

Was this the car from the accident last night on West Side Highway? My sister happened upon a scene on WSH – whose description matches what this might be a photo from – shortly after the crash, so soon such that only one police officer had so far responded. The driver, a young man, was dead on site. A shame.

Link: Entelligence: Chrome OS, babies, and bathwater -- Engadget

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:56:38 -0500

Link: Entelligence: Chrome OS, babies, and bathwater -- Engadget:

Some of Gartenberg’s warning-words are fair, however him pointing to his own article about MIDs is unfair. He sites his own indictment of Intel’s MID definition and strategy as if it’s an example of the errs in Google’s ways. At the end of the MID article he concedes that the iPod touch is a successful example of a “tweener” device.

As for me, I think Chrome OS is trying to figure out what story it must tell to give enough thrust for escape velocity. Gartenberg is probably right that it isn’t Intel’s definition of what a MID is… afterall, at the price-points those early MID concepts were being offered at were the equivalent of category stillbirth. But today, there are a couple tweener device designs that are not a cellphone replacement (iPod touch), or too big for the pocket and at the same time not a laptop (Kindle), that users are starting to find compelling and will continue to do so in the future.

All this market testing is healthy and great “platforms” will win the day. What else should Google be spending their cash on?

Best Buy released a marketing video showing how Rocketboost enabled products can help

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:24:34 -0500

Best Buy released a marketing video showing how Rocketboost enabled products can help:

A bit corporate and simplified, but you weren’t expecting tear-downs and spectrum plots now were you? There are never too many ways to tell a good story…

Vienna VA.

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:26:06 -0500

Vienna VA.

Welcome to Virginia. 77 in a 65. Lame asses.

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:22:01 -0500

Welcome to Virginia. 77 in a 65. Lame asses.

Roadwork in Georgia on I-95 is peculiar. There is nothing in...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:48:11 -0500

Roadwork in Georgia on I-95 is peculiar. There is nothing in sight yet they are expanding to four lanes in each direction. Maybe makes for a better fireline for the next Sherman event.

Photo

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:58:56 -0500

Photo

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:58:29 -0500

Photo

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:57:58 -0500

Jetblue out of JFK beats the hell out of Newark. I am at Newark.

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:46:13 -0500

Jetblue out of JFK beats the hell out of Newark. I am at Newark.

Google Health

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:33:45 -0500

bijan:

I just set up my profile on Google Health.

I added my basic vitals (birthdate, weight, height) plus the date of my recent flu shot, my allergies as well as past surgeries.

I shared my profile with my wife so she now has full access.

A few weeks ago I had a routine physical including blood tests to check on my cholesterol. I still don’t have the results. It’s on my todo list to call my doctors office to get the data but thats a hassle.

I wish there was an easy & automatic way to get that data into my profile.

As I’ve said before, the family tree is missing medical history. And while it’s easy to complain about the current antiquated paper based medical records system, it’s exciting to consider where things like Google Health and other web based services are taking us.

In the future my kids (and their kids) will be able to see my medical history. It will help us stay informed. It will help us make better decisions. As patients we will connect with others going through same issues. We can connect each other to new studies, new research, new data.

Powerful stuff to think about .
What else becomes possible once our data is available?

New York City Is Rocking For Startups!

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:25:16 -0500

continuations:

Here is just a small sampling of all the awesome events that took place in NY City this week (I realize I should have posted this at the beginning of the week). Just to name a few, there was Web 2.0 Expo, the net neutrality debate on Tuesday night and New York Entrepreneur Week. There was also the UK digital mission to New York and I am sure many others that I am forgetting or did not know about.

Last week saw the announcement of Founders Collective, a great addition to the seed funding available in New York City. Over the last two weeks I have had meetings with some awesome folks coming out of Google and either looking for startups to join or getting ready to start their own. Also over the last month, several of our portfolio companies have had great success recruiting from the West Coast, including tech talent (something that seemed highly unlikely a few years ago). These are both examples of what I refer to as Google’s gift to New York.

So when I recently heard from a friend in London that he was thinking about going to the West Coast to look for startups to join there, my first reaction was to point him to New York instead. I am really excited about everything that’s happening in the city!

P.S. If you are still looking to catch an event, I will be on a panel at 10:30am this morning with Howard Morgan, Anthony Marino and Jim Robinson at Columbia University’s Havemeyer Hall, Room 309

I’m at Mercadito (179 Avenue B, btw 11th & 12th, New York). http://bit.ly/gLhTJ

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:30:59 -0500

I’m at Mercadito (179 Avenue B, btw 11th & 12th, New York). http://bit.ly/gLhTJ

fred-wilson: Union Square Christmas Market from 17 Floors Up...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:06:56 -0500

fred-wilson:

Union Square Christmas Market from 17 Floors Up (via fredwilson)

Ho, ho, …ho?

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-11-15)

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:02:07 -0500

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-11-15):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz