Browsed by
Month: May 2014

Vinod Khosla: Doctors cannot compete with machines

Vinod Khosla: Doctors cannot compete with machines

Good morning, All,

We nearly entitled today’s newsletter, ‘Is Silicon Valley Making Itself Irrelevant?’ but benefit of the doubt to the population out there at large.

Doctors cannot compete with machines,” contends Silicon Valley uber investor Vinod Khosla. He’s talking Big Data. Medicine may not be an exact science, and it certainly has its problems, most notably, the pharmaceutical industry and that’s as far as we’re going down that rabbit hole today. But technology is not as sophisticated as it needs to be for us to allow ourselves to be diagonsed by Big Data. Nor is it secure enough - nor can we trust Big Government. It’s a dangerous road to take, given the number of hacks we see, even in something as simple as online transaction, and what if this happened in the health care system? Not if, when. Ever deal with an automated help line, even when a simple mistake was made? Imagine if your health data is compromised. One word: heatbleed. Equally importantly, who’s then in charge? The titans of Silicon Valley? We are unfortunately personally plagued with both a science background and an excellent memory. One of Mr. Khosla’s investments was in a company called Unreal Candy, a ‘healthy’ version of confections. They may be 100% ‘real,’ but healthy – far from it. And we defy you to find nutritional information or nutritional comparisons to their so-called unhealthy competition on their site. They also claim to be low glycemic yet their products contain cane sugar, too, which is not low glycemic – and there’s still no such thing as being a little bit pregnant. Bill Gates endorses the brand, but then, he’s an investor. And is as clueless about food science as is Khosla. Read More...

from New York Tech Day to the DLD Conference to TechCrunch Disrupt

from New York Tech Day to the DLD Conference to TechCrunch Disrupt

Good morning, All,

That was MSFT Explorer’s tag line, for those of us who remember the days before Safari and Bing.

It’s Internet Week in New York and we’ve attended a number of conferences lately, from New York Tech Day to the DLD Conference to TechCrunch Disrupt, all varying in price from free to expensive. Not just to attend, but to exhibit as well, and while NYTech Day was a lot more affordable to exhibit (it’s startups who are exhibiting, most bootstrapped) and free to attend, the question is: is it worth it? Did you get value from it? Read More...

networking breakfast

networking breakfast

Good morning, All,

First, our networking breakfast is tomorrow morning, May 14th. Register here and hope to see you there!

Some interesting information we’ve come across lately. A number of publications have been touting the death of the web. As Mobile Roars Ahead, It’s Time To Finally Admit The Web Is Dying. The Web is evolving. Smart phone screens are getting larger. Minis are outselling iPads. A mobile browser was the Battlefield winner at TechCrunch Disrupt last week. Read More...

Building a company, not so much. Entrepreneurship is up globally and not surprising:

Building a company, not so much. Entrepreneurship is up globally and not surprising:

Good morning, All,

Building a web presence is easy. Building a company, not so much. Entrepreneurship is up globally and not surprising: there’s a job shortage. Globally.

There are different forms of founders in tech, and there’s a big difference between an entrepreneur and a wantrepreneur, as Brian Cohen calls dilettantes who live on 'hopium.' An idea is not company, You also need to know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, where you’re going, and how you’re going to get there. Helps to be a subject matter expert, or have one on the team. In other words, someone who lives in the space and isn’t just a tourist there. Read More...