If you cut the power to a bulb, it's obviously not going to know what you are doing with the app. The tap allows you to never cut power to the bulb. Yes the tap itself is one way but it is only intended to toggle on/off and select a few presets. It does not interfere with the two-way nature of the rest of the system including the bridge, apps, api clients, etc...
Dimming/hueing individual bulbs may be a luxury but there are situations when it comes in handy (leave one overhead light on for reading, leave lights at the back of the room dimmed for movies, light only every other bulb in a long hallway). The costs of a smart (white) bulb will fall to within a few dollars of a standard LED bulb. The additional complexity & components will improve the overall build quality of the bulb. There are lots of problems with cheap LED bulbs now, especially dimmable ones (flickering, humming, power supply failures). It isn't very ideal to use a dimmer to adjust the voltage waveform of a device that has to then rectify it and use PWM to do its own dimming. So smart bulbs do solve some very annoying problems in that area. The fact that switches will also need to be replaced with smart versions for best results and the additional "vampire" power consumption of smart bulbs when not illuminated are drawbacks.
The point of trademarks is to prevent consumer confusion so that a company can't trick you into buying their product instead of the one you intended to buy. But in a world of thousands of brands and in particular this type of product which is mostly distinguished by make and model, color should not qualify as a source of consumer confusion as long as the product features a clearly distinct make and model.
The Simpsons: Season 25, Episode 9: Steal This Episode (5 Jan. 2014) parodied this situation showing an FBI with the majority of its resources focused on copyright enforcement.
I'm sure you could get a token revoked with an e-mail to Tesla. The API is not intended for use by third parties so really the only valid criticism here is "Tesla does not have a 3rd party API".
Is there a client that can be instructed to download randomly selected non-sequential pieces up to a user-determined size limit? Then store those pieces along with the torrent file and wait until there is a call for them to be reassembled to seed?
Server side encryption is only potentially beneficial for limited data breaches where the attacker gains access to the data but not the keys. In the case of government requests, they have the same rights to ask for the keys as for the data. Perhaps if there is a seizure of entire disks then having encryption may oblige them to ask for specific keys and therefore protect your data from snooping when you are not the target. It is also unclear exactly how unique/granular the keys are.
Content distribution should not be part of a modern business model. Like it or not, you have to compete in distribution with piracy. The question should be: Can I distribute my content for free and still generate revenue? The answer lies in some of the following possibilities: 1. Subsidize the creation of the content through syndication, sponsorship 2. Monetize the consumption of the content (ads) 3. Value added products/services which are hard to copy 4. Add intangible value through community, zeitgeist
You still have to compete on the content itself and there is not much scarcity in that market. As some other comments mentioned, format is increasingly important. A 50+ page magazine can psychologically daunting compared to a stream of content which can be check and "finished" several times a day. The latter also results in repeat engagement opportunities. Something like ESPN insider may be good to examine.
The fact that the content industry is evolving and requires innovation for survival is a good thing.
1. Ask a question that will likely result in lots of comments featuring buzzwords and brand names and personal anecdotes. 2. Get good page rank. 3. Leverage that page rank with advertisers. 4. $
TAS: "Hello, The Apple Shop" Caller: "I'm having trouble with..." TAS (interrupts): "We have a special offer going on today that I highly recommend. It's our exclusive Cider Club membership which will deliver our latest products to you every month, year-round. And when you come into our shop you will get VIP service at our Juice (slur pronunciation) Bar. This is a limited time offer." Caller: "Wow that sounds great how much is this Cyber (don't correct them) Club?" TAS: "It's just £199 for the year, billed on a recurring basis. I can take your credit card information now." Caller: "Sounds too good to be true! Sign me up!"
1. IF they buy them, tons of people are going to return these when they realize they can't run x86 Windows applications on them and also be disappointed at Microsoft for it. That disappointment will be contagious. This is poor marketing by not clearly differentiating architecture platforms. Not to mention the fact that they used an x86 based tablet in the keynote launch and will also sell it under the "Surface Pro" moniker. OSX is not iOS and nobody thinks that it is.
2. Microsoft is so ubiquitous that it is hard to think of anything MS as a specialty/luxury product. They should have created some mystery in-house brand with lots of viral marketing and kept Ballmer publicly as far away from it as possible. Oh and don't pilfer the product name from a previous technology associated with making people look awkward on TV in front of unnaturally large touch screens.
3. For the way they are putting the spotlight on it, ALL devices should come with the keyboard cover. It's almost like selling it without a charger. It's just a disappointing out of the box experience rather than a delightful surprise. Or at least something like the first million devices get a free keyboard cover.
4. Apple has all the mindshare as the "spent more money than I needed to and I'm proud of it" computing brand. Android has all the mindshare as the "got my money's worth" mobile brand. There's not much else to think about. Where can MS achieve significant mindshare and make the customer feel like they are winning?
Honestly I like the device and think I would enjoy owning one but I feel no urge to order one.
If you DIY you can probably accomplish a lot for under $10k and the pros would probably charge you 10x that for similar functionality. The following categories should represent the major considerations:
Infrastructure - How are you going to connect everything? - WiFi Everywhere - Server box for storage & to run some home automation software & scripts (small embedded linux or more powerful) - Main equipment location & as much distributed wiring as you can do cheaply & easily yourself
Entertainment - From where will your source content & how will you present it? - LCD/Plasma Monitors - Multiroom audio - Rokus or other cheap streaming boxes? - Whole House DVR systems from cable/satellite? (Dish Hopper/Joey, etc...) - HDHomeRun or other DVR capture cards? - A/V matrix switches & distribution? (monoprice) - Programmable remotes (ipads, cheap android tablets, logitech harmony, etc...)
The wow factor usually comes from complex actions resulting from simple inputs (scripting) so plan ahead for how everything is going to work together & communicate (sticking to fewer protocols will be easier, though maybe not always cheaper). Have a controller/server you can program yourself and don't get locked in to a proprietary system.
IMHO, a bunch of ipads plastered into the walls really aren't that useful or impressive so skip that.
Slashdot Mirror
This should make it easier to convince people to swallow balloons...
If you cut the power to a bulb, it's obviously not going to know what you are doing with the app. The tap allows you to never cut power to the bulb. Yes the tap itself is one way but it is only intended to toggle on/off and select a few presets. It does not interfere with the two-way nature of the rest of the system including the bridge, apps, api clients, etc...
Dimming/hueing individual bulbs may be a luxury but there are situations when it comes in handy (leave one overhead light on for reading, leave lights at the back of the room dimmed for movies, light only every other bulb in a long hallway). The costs of a smart (white) bulb will fall to within a few dollars of a standard LED bulb. The additional complexity & components will improve the overall build quality of the bulb. There are lots of problems with cheap LED bulbs now, especially dimmable ones (flickering, humming, power supply failures). It isn't very ideal to use a dimmer to adjust the voltage waveform of a device that has to then rectify it and use PWM to do its own dimming. So smart bulbs do solve some very annoying problems in that area. The fact that switches will also need to be replaced with smart versions for best results and the additional "vampire" power consumption of smart bulbs when not illuminated are drawbacks.
The point of trademarks is to prevent consumer confusion so that a company can't trick you into buying their product instead of the one you intended to buy. But in a world of thousands of brands and in particular this type of product which is mostly distinguished by make and model, color should not qualify as a source of consumer confusion as long as the product features a clearly distinct make and model.
The Simpsons: Season 25, Episode 9: Steal This Episode (5 Jan. 2014) parodied this situation showing an FBI with the majority of its resources focused on copyright enforcement.
The only soft wear they got in New Jersey are them velour track suits.
After you finish the course, you'll be able to purchase the big data generated by THE COURSE!!
Big data, giving snake oil a run for its money.
Meanwhile... on a planet trillions of miles away, the secret Chinese-American War rages on.
Introducing... Instagerm
What do you mean? There are published comments from private citizens (and they are some real gems).
I'm sure you could get a token revoked with an e-mail to Tesla. The API is not intended for use by third parties so really the only valid criticism here is "Tesla does not have a 3rd party API".
Is there a client that can be instructed to download randomly selected non-sequential pieces up to a user-determined size limit? Then store those pieces along with the torrent file and wait until there is a call for them to be reassembled to seed?
Server side encryption is only potentially beneficial for limited data breaches where the attacker gains access to the data but not the keys. In the case of government requests, they have the same rights to ask for the keys as for the data. Perhaps if there is a seizure of entire disks then having encryption may oblige them to ask for specific keys and therefore protect your data from snooping when you are not the target. It is also unclear exactly how unique/granular the keys are.
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/06/21/003220/sound-based-system-promises-chipless-phone-payment
Content distribution should not be part of a modern business model. Like it or not, you have to compete in distribution with piracy. The question should be: Can I distribute my content for free and still generate revenue? The answer lies in some of the following possibilities:
1. Subsidize the creation of the content through syndication, sponsorship
2. Monetize the consumption of the content (ads)
3. Value added products/services which are hard to copy
4. Add intangible value through community, zeitgeist
You still have to compete on the content itself and there is not much scarcity in that market. As some other comments mentioned, format is increasingly important. A 50+ page magazine can psychologically daunting compared to a stream of content which can be check and "finished" several times a day. The latter also results in repeat engagement opportunities. Something like ESPN insider may be good to examine.
The fact that the content industry is evolving and requires innovation for survival is a good thing.
Just a cover story for an order to "make it rain".
1. Ask a question that will likely result in lots of comments featuring buzzwords and brand names and personal anecdotes.
2. Get good page rank.
3. Leverage that page rank with advertisers.
4. $
I don't know about CEO but the only way he could be a good front man would be in a KISS cover band.
The catholic church?
"However, once the photo is opened, and the timer goes off, Snapchat does in fact delete the photo."
http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/09/actually-snapchat-photos-are-just-as-deleted-as-any-other-file-you-trash/
TAS: "Hello, The Apple Shop"
Caller: "I'm having trouble with..."
TAS (interrupts): "We have a special offer going on today that I highly recommend. It's our exclusive Cider Club membership which will deliver our latest products to you every month, year-round. And when you come into our shop you will get VIP service at our Juice (slur pronunciation) Bar. This is a limited time offer."
Caller: "Wow that sounds great how much is this Cyber (don't correct them) Club?"
TAS: "It's just £199 for the year, billed on a recurring basis. I can take your credit card information now."
Caller: "Sounds too good to be true! Sign me up!"
By then we'll have cheap robots. But when the robots want to unionize, watch out!
1. IF they buy them, tons of people are going to return these when they realize they can't run x86 Windows applications on them and also be disappointed at Microsoft for it. That disappointment will be contagious. This is poor marketing by not clearly differentiating architecture platforms. Not to mention the fact that they used an x86 based tablet in the keynote launch and will also sell it under the "Surface Pro" moniker. OSX is not iOS and nobody thinks that it is.
2. Microsoft is so ubiquitous that it is hard to think of anything MS as a specialty/luxury product. They should have created some mystery in-house brand with lots of viral marketing and kept Ballmer publicly as far away from it as possible. Oh and don't pilfer the product name from a previous technology associated with making people look awkward on TV in front of unnaturally large touch screens.
3. For the way they are putting the spotlight on it, ALL devices should come with the keyboard cover. It's almost like selling it without a charger. It's just a disappointing out of the box experience rather than a delightful surprise. Or at least something like the first million devices get a free keyboard cover.
4. Apple has all the mindshare as the "spent more money than I needed to and I'm proud of it" computing brand. Android has all the mindshare as the "got my money's worth" mobile brand. There's not much else to think about. Where can MS achieve significant mindshare and make the customer feel like they are winning?
Honestly I like the device and think I would enjoy owning one but I feel no urge to order one.
http://slashdot.org/story/06/07/13/0822206/darpas-cortically-coupled-computer-vision-system
http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/imaging/a-brainy-approach-to-image-sorting
If you DIY you can probably accomplish a lot for under $10k and the pros would probably charge you 10x that for similar functionality. The following categories should represent the major considerations:
Infrastructure - How are you going to connect everything?
- WiFi Everywhere
- Server box for storage & to run some home automation software & scripts (small embedded linux or more powerful)
- Main equipment location & as much distributed wiring as you can do cheaply & easily yourself
Entertainment - From where will your source content & how will you present it?
- LCD/Plasma Monitors
- Multiroom audio
- Rokus or other cheap streaming boxes?
- Whole House DVR systems from cable/satellite? (Dish Hopper/Joey, etc...)
- HDHomeRun or other DVR capture cards?
- A/V matrix switches & distribution? (monoprice)
- Programmable remotes (ipads, cheap android tablets, logitech harmony, etc...)
Comfort & Convenience
- Lighting (X10, Z-Wave, Insteon, UPB, etc..)
- HVAC (thermostats)
- In-house communications (intercoms, pbx)
- Misc automation (window shading, garage doors, locks, etc...)
- Weather/Environmental sensors (oregon scientific, lacrosse)
- Programmable remotes (ipads, cheap android tablets, logitech harmony, etc...)
Security
- Alarm system (2gig, honeywell, etc..)
- Cameras & DVR
The wow factor usually comes from complex actions resulting from simple inputs (scripting) so plan ahead for how everything is going to work together & communicate (sticking to fewer protocols will be easier, though maybe not always cheaper). Have a controller/server you can program yourself and don't get locked in to a proprietary system.
IMHO, a bunch of ipads plastered into the walls really aren't that useful or impressive so skip that.