Once again, I'm honored to have been asked to speak in the Space and Science tracks at Dragon*Con. Dragon takes over downtown Atlanta during Labor Day weekend. It's enormous. All the public reports of attendance are wrong... they admit to "40,000+" but that's low-balled to avoid fire code problems. But for those of you who don't know, there … [Read more...]
Fixing K-12 Education
August 21, 2011 by
This post was triggered by John Warner (@SwampFox) tweeting a link to an editorial in a South Carolina newspaper. South Carolina needs a personalized education for every student Go read it. I actually agree with a lot of it … [Read more...]
The New Model 100
August 21, 2011 by
Has anyone else noticed that iA Writer's "focus mode" turns your iPad into a TRS-80 Model 100? Some of you are too young to remember the Model 100. I travelled with one of these bulletproof boxes for years, starting in 1984. It ran forever on AA batteries. It had a full-size keyboard for touch-typing. The acoustic couplers would connect you to … [Read more...]
The Gods of the Copybook Headings
August 9, 2011 by
A few verses worth re-reading given the events of the past few weeks: When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace. They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease. But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick … [Read more...]
Redacted Feedback
August 5, 2011 by
Earlier this week, I attended a set of company pitches by startups trying to raise venture capital money. I was wearing my investor hat, not my Georgia Tech hat. The organizer asked for my feedback. I gave it to her. I figured it was worth sharing here, with the identifiable details REDACTED to protect the guilty: The [COMPANY REDACTED] … [Read more...]
Midtown Atlanta Apple Store
August 4, 2011 by
Putting the final touches on Midtown Atlanta's new Apple store (Spring Street and Armstead Place). … [Read more...]
Angry Birds Challenge
July 10, 2011 by
I've been spending way too much time with Angry Birds lately. One of the variant games (Angry Birds Seasons) has been releasing one new level every day, and I can't go to sleep until I get three stars. I haven't updated this post yet, but I have three stars on every level released so far from the basic game and both the Seasons and Rio variants. … [Read more...]
iPhone/iPad Lockscreens
July 7, 2011 by
Last week, I managed to leave my iPhone in a different building across campus. Boneheaded move, I know. But it was returned to me before I even finished my next meeting (in yet a third building on campus)... before I even realized it was missing! How? I'd gone to the trouble of setting up a custom lock screen for my iPhone (and my iPad; see … [Read more...]
Tom Sawyer’s Fence
July 1, 2011 by
There is an old Vulcan proverb: Only Nixon could go to China. --Spock, Star Trek VI When I took over EI2 two years ago, one of the first things I did was merge ATDC and VentureLab. It was the right thing to do at the time... but times have changed. Nina Sawczuk has been director of Startup Services for almost a year and has ambitious growth … [Read more...]
Immigration and the Startup Visa
June 30, 2011 by
A few weeks ago, I was at a Georgia Tech student event, the Convergence Innovation Competition. I was incredibly impressed by the quality of the student entrepreneurs. They were mostly Master's candidates in Computing or Electrical Engineering, While still at the competition, I tweeted: Of the first 28 student entrepreneurs I've met in … [Read more...]
