1st mobile transaction occurred in 1997 in Finland - SMS message for coke machine purchase
Apple's payment system is viewed as the current pinnacle of the evolution of mobile payment platforms - but focus is on the retailer utilization of the device not the consumer (in the USA)
So what is the best usage of mobile platforms in retail:  Marketing? Payment? Operational efficiencies?  What is the ROI / TCO?

Cycle of innovation: 

For Entrepreneurs: it's not just about making money, but about making meaning

1. Small Business has a much higher relationship IQ than large companies
2. In this context, Social Media is a key tool for the entrepreneur:  One must start conversations to set terms;  utilize for reputation management;  Become an active media consumer to settle quality vs quantity; id the channel 
3. Find out where your community is hanging out: facebook vs linkedin vs myspace; (other niche community tools will arise);  
4. Start: what audience targeted? What is my brand? What is the conversation you want them to have? BE AUTHENTIC

"always drive fear out of the workplace. Fear is "Public Enemy #1" of an innovative culture"
"Have more fun"
"Increase the visual stimuli of your organization's physical space"
"Ensure a high level of personal freedom and trust"

http://tinyurl.com/yjvmfcu

Amateur researchers soon able to tap supercomputers

By ASHLEE VANCE THE NEW YORK TIMES

PORTLAND, Ore. — For decades, the world’s supercomputers have been the tightly guarded property of universities and governments. But what would happen if regular folks could get their hands on one?

The price of supercomputers is dropping quickly, in part because they are often built with the same off-the-shelf parts found in PCs, as a recent supercomputing conference in Portland made clear. Just about any organization with a few million dollars can now buy or assemble a top-flight machine.

Meanwhile, research groups and companies like IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Intel are finding ways to make vast stores of information available online through so-called cloud computing.

These advances are pulling down the high walls around computing-intensive research. A result could be a democratization that gives ordinary people with a novel idea a chance to explore their curiosity with heavy computing firepower - and maybe find something unexpected.

The trend has spurred some of the world’s top computing experts and scientists to work toward freeing valuable stores of information. The goal is to fill big computers with scientific data and then let anyone in the world with a PC, including amateur scientists, tap into these systems.

“It’s a good call to arms,” said Mark Barrenechea, the chief executive of Silicon Graphics, which sells computing systems to labs and businesses. “The technology is there. The need is there. This could exponentially increase the amount of science done across the globe.”

The notion of top research centers sharing information is hardly new. Some of the earliest incarnations of what we now know as the World Wide Web came to life so that physicists and other scientists could tap into large data stores from afar.

In addition, universities and government labs were early advocates of what became popularized as grid computing, where shared networks were created to shuttle data about.

The current thinking, however, is that the labs can accomplish far more than was previously practical by piggybacking on some of the trends sweeping the technology industry. And this time around, research bodies big and small, along with brainy individuals, can participate in the sharing agenda.

For inspiration, scientists are looking at cloud computing services like Google’s online office software, photo-sharingsites and Amazon.com’s data center rental program. They are trying to get that type of Web-based technology into their labs and make it handle enormous volumes of data.

“You’ve seen these desktop applications move into the cloud,” said Pete Beckman, the director of the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility in Illinois. “Now science is on that same track. This helps democratize science and good ideas.”

With $32 million from the Energy Department, Argonne has set to work on Magellan, a project to explore the creation of a cloud-computing infrastructure that scientists around the globe can use. Beckman argued that such a system would reduce the need for smaller universities and labs to spend money on their own computing infrastructure.

Another benefit is that researchers would not need to spend days downloading huge data sets so that they could perform analysis on their own computers. Instead, they could send requests to Magellan and just receive the answers.

Even curious individuals on the fringe of academia may have a chance to delve into things like climate change and protein analysis.

“Some mathematician in Russia can say, ‘I have an idea,’” Beckman said. “The barrier to entry is so low for him to try out that idea. So this really broadens the number of discoverers and, hopefully, discoveries.”

The computing industry has made such a discussion possible. Historically, the world’s top supercomputers relied on expensive proprietary components. Government laboratories paid vast sums of money to use these systems for classified projects.

But, over the past 10 years, the vital innards of supercomputers have become more mainstream, and a wide variety of organizations have bought them.

At the conference, undergraduate students competed in a contest to build affordable mini-supercomputers on the fly. And a supercomputer called Jaguar at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee officially became the world’s fastest machine. It links thousands of mainstream chips from Advanced Micro Devices.

Seven of the world’s top 10 supercomputers use standard chips from AMD and Intel, as do about 90 percent of the 500 fastest machines. “I think this says that supercomputing technology is affordable,” said Margaret Lewis, an AMD director. “We are kind of getting away from this ivory tower.”

While Magellan and similar projects are encouraging signs, researchers have warned that much work lies ahead tofree what they consider valuable information for broader analysis.

At the Georgia Institute of Technology, for example, researchers have developed software that can evaluate scans of the brain and heart, and identify anomalies that mightindicate problems. To advance such techniques, the researchers need to train their software by testing it on thousands of body scans.

But it is hard to find a repository of such scans that a hospital or a government organization like the National Institutes of Health is willing to share, even if personal information can be stripped away, said George Biros, a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “Medical schools don’t make this information available,” he said.

Bill Howe, a senior scientist at the eScience Institute at the University of Washington, has urged research organizations to reveal their information. “All the data that we collect in science should be accessible, and that’s just not the way it works today,” he said.

Howe said high school students and so-called citizen scientists could make new discoveries if given the chance.

“Let’s see what happens when classrooms of students explore this information,” he said.

http://holykaw.alltop.com/how-to-make-time-for-twitter

Posted Nov 12th, 2009 at 10:05 AM and seen 437 times

Managing your social media networks (especially those on Twitter) should be an essential part of your branding routine. But in your already jam-packed schedule, it might seem like you don’t have the time to stay on top of it. And without equipping yourself with the necessary tools, you might be right. So here’s a look at a few time-saving tools and ideas to help you trim the fat off your Twitter regimen.

November 9, 2009

How the Navy Seals Increased Passing Rates with Simple Psychology

It was one of many such missions my unit conducted as ‘practice' in the Army. In the snow, in the rain, in the summer heat we practiced the science of artillery. At least half of the year, every year, we spent in the woods in 3 to 7 day chunks. I thought my stint as a Cannon Fire Direction Specialist (13-E) would be indoors in a command center like the one in the 1980s classic, War Games, starring Matthew Broderick. At least that is what my recruiter told me.

Not!

I was mere yards from the gun line, had to dig foxholes, pull guard duty, man the M-60 and listen to the artillery rounds fired up close and 'personal' throughout the day and night. Luckily, I never had to go to war. I served during a relative time of peace (1993-95).

So,- why did we spend so much time living in the woods, firing live rounds and going through the motions? Why were two twenty year olds trusted to set up communications for 2 platoons (100 men) and to guide them into their new base in the woods for the next few days?

Well, we had to do this under as realistic conditions as possible so if we were called to war we would be able to perform our jobs with confidence and without thinking about it. Many of my fellow soldiers had served in the first Iraq War and they continuously relayed how serious warfare was and how we needed to be prepared. Our training reflected that mentality. But the ‘practice makes perfect' approach isn't always enough.

Which brings me to the Navy Seals. I will admit that training to become a combat soldier is tough. But becoming an elite soldier such as a Navy Seal or Ranger is tougher. These guys are not only regular soldiers, they also go through further training to become masters of terrain and conditions and to handle situations in hostile territories as a small group or on their own. Their training has to be super intense in order to have soldiers who can actually carry out their missions.

Hence, they had an extremely low passing rate for trainees. According to The Brain, a show featured on The History Channel, out of 140 recruits (average/each cycle) only 36 would make it. However, they noticed that they were losing good recruits, not because they couldn't phsyically hack it, but because they had a mental block. It was in one key area; the water. The Navy Seals have a drill in a pool where recruits have to remain under water for 20 minutes. They are equipped with oxygen tanks for air. All they have to do is stay under water without coming up. Seems simple enough.

Well there's a catch. The recruits are constantly harassed by their instructors who rip off their masks, tie their (air) lines in knots and conduct other general forms of harrassment. The recruit's job is to not panic; wait until the attack is over; calmly fix the problem while remaining under water and then wait for the next attack. At the end of the 20 minutes the recruit will be required to kiss the floor of the pool and then will be brought up by the drill instructor.

But the opposite often happens. Soldiers do panic and even with four chances to pass (at different times in the program) many never make it. So the Navy Seals turned to psychology. Using a four step process they increased the passage rates in their program. What did they do? They emphasized what psychologists and communication academics have been advocating for years:

Goal Setting - Mental Rehearsal - Self Talk - Arousal Control

With goal setting the recruits were taught to set goals in extremely short chunks. For instance, one former Navy Seal discussed how he set goals such as making it to lunch, then dinner. With mental rehearsal they were taught to visualize themselves succeeding in their activities and going through the motions. As far as self talk is concerned, the experts in The Brain documentary made the claim that we say 300 to 1000 words to ourselves a minute. By instructing the recruits to speak positively to themselves they could learn how to "override fears" resulting from the amygdala, a primal part of the brain that helps us deal with anxiety. And finally, with arousal control the recruits were taught how to breathe to help mitigate the crippling emotions and fears that some of their tasks encouraged.

This very simple four step process increased their passing rates from 25 percent to 33 percent, which is excellent in a rigorous program as theirs. It demonstrates that achieving success doesn't always have to be a complex process. A few minor additions and tweaks may be all that is needed.

Bakari Akil II, Ph.D. is the author of Super You! 101 Ways to Maximize your Potential! Check out his page on Twitter.