Netizen: Business

Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Beaming Satellite Internet Into China

For China To Achieve Double Digit Growths Again
Sergey Brin's Is The Right Stand

I have been curious. And Quora has the answer. As suspected, the technology is there, it is the law that seems to be the problem. My definition of free speech in the 21st century is unfettered internet access.

The US bombarded Libya. Beaming satellite internet into undemocratic countries fits my definition of nonviolence beautifully. And I am guessing it is way cheaper than warfare.

Another would be the ring of fire concept. You would beam satellite internet along the border of a country and, oops, sorry some of it spilled over into your country.

Why hasn't anyone beamed satellite-based internet service to China to undermine the Chinese firewall?

There is satellite Internet service available in China - however it's generally subject to the same restrictions, and costs significantly more. In order to get a license to broadcast the signal over the country, the satellite ISP's usually need to either route the traffic through that country (which is transparent to you - i.e.: doesn't show up on a trace route), or support lawful/legal intercept/wiretapping by the country in question. See news last month RIM and India - even though it wasn't satellite, the Indian government wasn't satisfied until RIM put servers in country to allow the government to do lawful/legal intercept.

Due to international rules + regulations, you can't just 'Beam Satellite signals' into a country without their permission.

Satellite Internet access
Internet in China

The Underbanked, The Underserved

There is a lot of room for for profit microfinance.

Tech’s Hot New Market: The Poor

some 2.5 billion people globally lack access to basic financial services like checking accounts, debit accounts, credit, and insurance. Though not integrated into the mainstream financial system, they will still spend around $6 trillion annually

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Sugarcoating

Venezuelan sugar cane (Saccharum) harvested for processing. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bioengineering has much to offer. Energy can be bioengineered. And there might not be green house gases.

Bacteria Use Photosynthesis to Make Sugar for Biofuels

ultra-cheap sugar at high yields using photosynthetic microörganisms ..... 10 times more sugar per acre than sugarcane. It expects it can further engineer the bacteria to increase this yield, to as high as 30 times more sugar per acre than sugarcane.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Talk About Pulling Your Own Weight

Nanotube Muscles Bench 50,000 Times Their Own Weight

Carbon nanotube yarns powered by light or electricity can run motors, flip a catapult, and lift impressive amounts of weight. ..... lifting loads as much as 50,000 times greater than their own weight .... Artificial muscles might be used as actuators in robotics and surgical tools, and drive tiny motors and flywheels. The nanotube muscles can be powered by electricity, but they also contract in response to light and certain chemicals. And they work at temperatures as high as 2,500 degrees Celsius, an extreme that reduces other strong actuating materials to a molten puddle. And unlike previous carbon nanotube muscles, these materials require no packaging or battery-like electrolytes to function. ..... Individual carbon nanotubes are stronger than steel, highly conductive, have great optical properties, and so on .... One problem is the tendency for nanotubes to form spaghetti-like tangles, where each point of tube-to-tube contact can compromise strength. But over the past few years materials scientists have been learning how to straighten out these tangles and build large, useful things

Monday, October 22, 2012

Sales And Marketing Are Important

English: Red Pinterest logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

LinkedIn has taught us sales is really important. Pinterest is saying marketing is key. I believe.

The Secret Behind Pinterest’s Growth Was Marketing, Not Engineering, Says CEO Ben Silbermann

now the third-largest source of referral traffic on the Internet .... The way Pinterest grew had little to do with Silicon Valley wisdom. It was about marketing — mostly grassroots marketing — not better algorithms. ..... In 2010, three months after Pinterest launched, the site had only 3,000 users. ..... So Pinterest started to have meet-ups at local boutiques, and to take fun pictures of people who attended them, and to engage with bloggers to do invitation campaigns like “Pin It Forward,” where bloggers got more invites to the site by spreading the world. ....... Fundamentally, the future is unwritten ..... he himself thought for a while that the secret to Pinterest’s growth woes would be finding some undiscovered Stanford grad student to build a better algorithm.