Ultra-cheap, ultra-low-power radar sensor for internet-of-things

There is no reason why radar should be expensive or power hungry. Can we make a radar sensor that is small and light enough for mobile phones and/or the internet of things?

Distributed Git

I am a big fan of Continuous Integration (CI), and the simple, elegant & light-weight approach to Configuration Management that it encourages:

Valid configurations of the system are defined by the revisions that live in the repository that is downstream from the CI quality-gate. No other configuration management is required than that defined by the repository state.

However, this reliance on the repository has consequences: The repository (ideally) holds everything that the system depends on, or stores configuration information at the very least.

This means big repositories.

Now, Git is a fantastic tool, it is terrifically flexible, and you can build all sorts of fantastic build-systems with it, but it is difficult to get to grips with, the user interface is appalling, and it suffers from one really really significant drawback: 

Git does not like large repositories.

Can we fix this? Perhaps by making Git a distributed tool?

GridLines

Traditional print media is quite limiting. Books, newspapers & magazines are fairly limited in how they can present information, and very limited in how the reader can interact with that information.

In transitioning to the on-line world, print publications have largely kept these limitations. Explicit attempts to break free of these self-imposed boundaries (Such as the much-vaunted New York Times "Snowfall" feature) are largely exercises in distraction: The addition of animation and visual effects to a linear, long-form narrative is hardly going to revolutionise the way that we consume media; The accordances are still the same; the communication is still one-way; and the journey through the story is still linear.

The web itself, with it's promise of a non-linear, branching navigation style, was a powerful, exciting and revolutionary concept when it was first introduced ... but what has happened to that revolution? Where has all the excitement gone?

Ultimately, we were let down by our brains: We are simply not quick enough to digest and process information that branches and expands exponentially, and we lack sufficient short term memory to combine it all into a coherent whole. In recognising these fundamental biological limitations, we have fallen back on traditional, linear storytelling, but have we fallen too far back?

There may be a half-way house. What if we could come up with a way of presenting information that goes beyond linear narrative, but is more restrained than a full-blown exponentially branching tree of possibilities? This is not a new idea. Some comment systems limited the depth of threads to preserve the navigability of the conversation as a whole -- and this works, by and large.

Many years ago, I envisioned a print newspaper that presented stories as arguments; editorials for two competing points of view presented on opposite pages of a double-page spread. More recently, the same thought recurred to me while looking at how Google+ lays out it's stream of articles, multiple tall, thin columns of text ("cards") arranged across the page.

I wonder if there could be mileage in combining these concepts - something that goes beyond a linear narrative, yet something that remains constrained to a two dimensional page; a branching, non-linear debate, but with strong limitations on the amount of branching that is possible; and the length of each point/post; a discussion forum and a venue for debate that restricts and guides commentators for the benefit and convenience of the reader. A medium within which text retains it's primacy, but that introduces (restrained) graphical and diagrammatic elements to assist in navigation; and to provide reference points for the reader.

I think that this would be a really interesting experiment to do.

The bastard child of twitter and snapchat

Each message can only be 6 characters long; and only lasts for 6 seconds before it is deleted.

Hyperkinetic dysfunctionality on steroids. Or speed. Same difference.

Assembly Apps.

Lots of app ideas; plus a really novel way of getting an implementation together:

https://assemblymade.com/

Should be a good way of sniffing out future directions & (possibly) identifying synergistic commercial opportunities.

Niche enterprise software

http://www.wired.com/insights/2013/07/big-name-software-could-be-killing-your-productivity/

Niche enterprise software

Optimising employee productivity using tools from the quantified-self movement.

The thesis is simple: the right amount of sleep; a good diet; a short commute; a supportive home environment, a suitable work environment (noise levels, light levels, temperature, as well as variations of these over the course of the day); a balanced & well-matched team and effective leadership all contribute meaningfully to attaining and maintaining optimum productivity levels.

However, different factors have a different impact for different individuals, so planning productivity improvements needs to be done on an individualistic; tailored basis.

We can use existing tools from the quantified-self movement to help individuals understand which factors are more important for them, and under what circumstances, to allow individuals and businesses to optimise their productivity and happiness, combining tracking technologies with psychometric surveys & genetic screening to try to tailor productivity enhancement programs for individuals and businesses.