Thursday, July 31, 2008

1600 pandas in Paris !

I know this post has nothing to do with my blog, but I felt like I needed to share this info. (this is also the aim of a blog, isn't it ?) I was really shocked when I saw that.

Have a look at this photo :




This is 1,600 pandas made of paper that have been put in front of Paris townhall, to represent the whole population of Panda remaining in the world. The WWF emblema is not far from becoming an extinguished species if nothing is done to protect him. And this represents also the danger for all the threaten species in the world.

If you feel concerned by this topic, please tell your friends about it, if you have a blog write a post on this subject, I think this event needs to be known around the world !

Green IT : the new IT business Eldorado ?

I feel very concerned by the incoming climate changes, and when I hear that around 20,000,000 old computers will be thrown in the nature in 2008, that's just too much for me.

Hopefully, thanks to the increasing energy cost, companies begin to realise that saving energy is good for the budget and good for the planet. This environement is then propitious to new ideas, and new ideas lead to new businesses ! If google decided in february to invest several $ millions in green projects and startups, that is not just by chance... And it is not the only one, investment funds are putting billions in these green-tech startups, despite the current world economy situation.

Some years ago, California has decided to walk on the "green path" and a new contest, the Californa clean tech open is born (http://cacleantech.org/). Amongst the finalists, I have noticed one of them called "Power assure" that offers to save power for data centers, ISPs and government. According to its founders, it could enable companies to save up to 81% of their server's power consumption. How ??? The idea is pretty simple : the servers are dynamically switched on/off as the traffic increases/decreases, thanks to a software that monitors and restarts servers.

The company is currently carrying out some large scale tests with Facebook and Yahoo !, and if successful, it might lead them to some new juicy contracts with big blue or others huge power consumers.

A good business idea, that is at the same time good for the environment !

Want to know more about this company ?

Nationality : American (CA)
Status : Inc.
URL : http://www.powerassure.com

What makes you an entrepreneur ?

That's the one million dollar question ! What is entrepreneurship, and is there a typical profile to be a business creator ? Why some people will become entrepreneurs and why some others will never have the courage to quit the position they have since 20 years and set up their own business ?

This is a very personnal feeling from a small IT company boss, but I am pretty sure most of the entrepreneurs will agree with me. First of all I think you know you are an entrepreneur. I, when I was a student, have always known that I wanted to own my business. I knew that I will never be an employee all my life and that I needed to create something on my own.
And it did not take too long, after 1 year as an employee in an international american consulting company, I decided to quit to set up my business.

So I would say that entrepreneurship is first of all the strong willing to own a company, even the smallest one.

Then, I would say that an entrepreneur is somebody who wants to create something, and therefore to participate to the economy growth, even at a very small scale. When I take a look at my company, I am of course very proud (who would not be ?), but I think this pride comes from the fact that I participate to the world's evolution, and also to my country's evolution. Nationalism can be a very strong leverage to success !

So secondly, I would say that an entrepreneur is driven by a strong will to create new things and participate.


Be independant, have no boss. I think this is a real state of mind. Now that I have set up my business, I know that I will never, never be an employee again. This independancy feeling, I have never felt it so much but when I created my company. Of course, you always need to deal with your clients, but that is a supplier-customer relationship, which is totaly different from an employee-manager one.

So third, an entrepreneur is someone who wants to be independant and have no boss. He wants to be the boss.


Last but not least, an entrepreneur wants to set up a successful business. To earn good money of course, but also to feel he has been successful. I love success, I hate failure. I feel happy when I have been successful setting up a new thing, and I am raging if I fail, because I think I have not been capable of it. Of course we need failure to learn, and that makes me more eagger to succeed the next time.

So finaly, entrepreneurs want to be successful.

Here we are ! If you have recognized yourself in this description and that you are still an employee, you need to quit your job now ! Of course, you also need the idea, the business plan the funds and so on, but don't forget : there is no bad business, there are just bad run businesses...

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The $10 Laptop

It seems that yesterday, (29th July 08) Indian officials have revealed that India was on track to develop the cheapest laptop in the world : less than $10 !

At first sight, it seems pretty unbelievable, but when you hear that Tata motors is producing a $ 2500 car, you know they can do it ! I am just wondering what will this laptop look like. As this is just a project kick off news, we do not have much info about that.

This laptop will be devoted to challenge the famous "1 laptop per child" fundation, and therefore will not be sold on the market but used to equip Indian pupiles.

A good initiative, hoping that this very low cost computer will be produced with a minimum care of the environment...

Develop your own Xbox game and earn money

Microsoft has recently announced that it could sell Xbox games developped by the players through XNA framework and share up to 70% of its revenues with the creators. These games will be available on the Xbox Live service.

After Wiiware, the equivalent service launched by Nitendo in 2007, that is another great example of the collaborative work that is used by more and more firms to develop their business. By exploiting everyone's creativity and innovation, companies minimise their risks since there is no initial investment (except maybe the development and support of the Dev framework), and are multiplying their chances of earning money with a great game concept coming from one of their fan.

As web bloggers becoming real entrepreneurs and earning money with their own creation, we will be able to be game creators and why not become famous with one of the Xbox success ?

I think that the IT world is only at dawn of this new collaborative era and that more and more is going to come !

Want to become an Xbox creator ?

http://www.xna.com/

http://creators.xna.com/

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Travel anywhere you want with the flying car !

When I found this link on the internet, I nearly felt down of my chair. Great idea, splendid idea ! A flying car !

For those like me who are born in the early 80s or before and have been watching the MASK cartoon on TV, this post will for sure raise up some nostalgy... !

This idea comes from Carl Dietrich, an MIT Graduate student who won the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for Inventiveness. He says that he is targeting more the amateur-pilot market than impatient commuters. This device will allow pilots to quickly fly from one point to another and then reach the final destination by road.

To my mind, this is the real beginning of massive private long range travels. Although the price is still high : $ 194,000 if you want to reserve right now your "transition" (that's the name given to this plane/car).

The POC (Proof Of Concept) will be shown this week in Oshkosh, WI :


Eager to apply for a flying license !?

To know more :
Terrafugia Incorporated
Nationality : American (Woburn, MA)
http://www.terrafugia.com/

Cuil is not Cuil ?

Today, I have tried to search for the word "Cuil" on Cuil, and... it can't even find himself ! Instead of that, I am being proposed some French Cuisine Categories... Cuil ! I like "Crème fraiche" ! But not a single site talking about Cuil...

Monday, July 28, 2008

How to Cuil ?

So here we are, Mr. Cuil ! Let's see what you can do !

Your creators claim that the internet has reached a point where there are so much data that "simply googling" on site's popularity does not stick to our needs. And that's absolutely true !

Here is the business concept of Cuil :
- The web has became huge, but everything must be referenced, so that even if a page is impopular, it should be found by someone
- As I said, popularity is one thing but does not make the whole thing. Especialy when you are looking for something very precise, you do not care about popularity but more about accuracy and context
- Organization : One word can have so many meanings that Cuil pretends to classify research hits in categories, so that you can filter and make your search more precise.
- Cuil says it has a good privacy policy, compared to google that sells your personal data and search habit to companies for a good price !

And so, what's in reality ? First of all, I find that Cuil's start page has a pure, classy and simple design. Such as Google there are no adverts. Moreover, this entire black page will save some K watts.

So let's have a try. I typed in "busine" and then, some suggestions came down related to my search. Not too bad, but already done in Google.


After having chosen "Business Opportunities" (great !) the search came out with... 20,597,858 results. Around 64,000,000 for Googles. Does that mean it is more accurate, or only that it has not referenced as many pages as Google ? I gave a try just down there.

In the search results, this is where Cuil reveals all its power. First of all the results layout is much better, with a better site's preview (some pictures added).

Moreover, there are some tabs helping you precising your search :


And some drilldown functionalities that help you sort your results by categories :


Mmmm, Burger King, a business opportunity ? You will have to explain that to me, Cuil !

Finaly, I have tried to find my own name : 23 results in Google, all relevant and... none in Cuil. Apparently, it seems that despite what its creators' are claiming, Google seems to have a bit of advance in terms of indexing.

Even if this product is still young and needs to prove its capabilities and resistance to the market, I think that I will use it for some days to see if it really helps me finding quicker what I want !

Google's end ?

I like going from one link to another on the internet, and what I like the most is when I find articles on completely crazy ideas.

Today, some former Google engineers have launched a new search engine called cuil, that they hope will upstage Google !!!

Here is the link I have been through : http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2008/07/28/ex_google_engineers_debut_cuill_way_to_search/

This search engines pretends to be different from Google but will it be sufficent enough to make the difference ? We are so used to Google that any new search engine encounters a high resistance to change... I will have a look at it and will post a message tomorrow with my conclusions !

Want to have a try ?
http://www.cuil.com

Protect your valuables with your mobile

A friend of mine told me about that product some days ago, and I found the idea very clever, although it might have some drawbacks.

Indeed, travelers are always good targets for theives and this product, developped buy SECU4 company in Switzerland, should be of great help !

This alarm system called the "BlueWatchDog" (Blue for bluetooth) consists of a credit card size device that you can insert into any object you want to secure (even in your children's pockets !) and of a software that you download on your mobile. Once set up, your mobile will ring or vibrate when your device (or your child !) is more than 1 to 30 meters far from the owner of the mobile, and few seconds after, it will engage a 100 decibels alarm to afraid the theif (not sure that somebody will robb your child, but it can be a good way of making them stay around you, once they have been transformed into a 100 decibels alarm once or twice...).



One major drawback of this system according to me is that it requires to be charged, and that will be one more battery adapter to carry in your luggage... but indeed, the alarm system needs some power to be engaged and this can not be with a passive device.

This product costs 79 euros VAT inc. which is to my mind affordable compared to its capabilities and is for the moment compatible with 70 % of the US and European mobiles, according to the constructor. (not compatible with my HTC though nor with any BlackBerries...)

If someone has already experienced it with one of its child, I will be very happy to share with him about this experience !

Info concerning SECU4 company :

Nationality : Swiss
Status : Limited company
URL : http://www.secu4.ch

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Want to enhance your innovation skills ? Innotown is for you !

We, IT entrepreneurs, are all looking for THE idea, the new concept that will change everyone's life and of course make us rich and famous !

We all know and admire Bill gates' success story, Google's web hegemony and others. How comes these guys have been able to set up such businesses ? Is that intelligence, tenacity or simply luck ? Well, we all know that it is also due to their innovation skills. Thinking "out of the box" can bring us a lot, and often more.

One will think that this is only reserved to some talentuous persons, with some kind of a gift, but actualy it is not. Innovation can be studied and enhanced as you do at school with history or mathematics.

Every year, there is a very interresting innovation event taking place which is called Innotown. This conference invites innovation experts in different fields to talk about how to improve and stimulate innovation. This year it is taking place in Norway on the 21st October (don't forget your scarf and mittens...) in the city of Stavenger.


Amongts all the conferences, you can find one called "Inside Steve Job's brain" or "The Simpsons - innovation once a week during 20 years".

Great event to stimulate your brain and also a great opportunity to visit a fabulous scandinavian country !

To know more : http://www.innotown.com


Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Get rid of your TV recorder !

You have gone for a professional trip abroad, but few minutes after your arrival, you realise that you have forgotten to set up your recorder for your favorite TV program... Don't worry, Wizzgo is here !

The idea is to create an online TV recorder : thanks to a small player installed on your PC (called "Iwizz", you can choose the TV program you want to record amongst the whole TV schedule, just by clicking on it.

Few hours after the TV program, you receive the file by internet, and here you go ! You can watch the latest episod of "Heroes" you have missed because your girlfriend wanted to have dinner with her parents, and of course she wanted you to be there ! and don't worry, you can watch it on your computer but also on your IPod, IPhone, PSP and so on.

On a technical point of view, the video format used here is realplayer, which require to install the associated player. It is working on Windows as well as on Mac OS (sorry for the linux buddies).

In addition to that, you have several "community" functionnalities, in order to stick with the new trend : you can recommend a TV program to your buddies, publish your choices and follow your friend's choices... !

That sounds great at first sight, even if there are still some stuffs to improve, such as the image quality. I think this is a first start for a world without any physical recorders at all ! that sounds great !

So how does this company earns some bucks ? It seems that the economic model is based on ads, since this service is completely free and there are some ads on the internet site and the player.


Info concerning Wizzgo company :

Nationality : French
Status : Limited company
Registered capital : 99 920 euros
URL : http://www.wizzgo.com (only available in french)

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Welcome on my IT Businesses blog !

Hi guys !

As an IT consultant, fancy of new technologies and entrepreneurship, I had always wanted to share my feelings and remarks on brand new ideas, how they are born and how the whole business is developped around it.

So here we are ! I will share on that blog all the new IT businesses I find interesting enough to talk about. Hope you will enjoy and that this blog will stimulate your entrepreneur's creativity and innovation to find new ideas !