Mobile TV is the next “big thing”

In other countries, watching live TV via a mobile device is somewhat common. South Korea for instance, uses a technique called digital multimedia broadcasting, or DMB, to delivery TV to cell phones. A list of countries which DMB is in use is here. BTW, South Korea also has the world’s highest  internet speeds also. Closer to home, and available on AT&T, Verizon etc networks is FLO TV. The problem with FLO TV is that it costs money, starting around $10 bucks a month, for not very much real programming.  Unveiled recently at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is the Tivit made by Valups Corp which essentially rebroadcasts TV signals to a phone, an iPhone to be specific. Something else to carry, charge, and get ripped off.

Several laptop manufactures are exploring both TV dongles and organic versions of  TV-in-there-Minis. Watch Dell in this area in particular. Note that this developing technology can also be used in vehicles, buses, taxis etc. You should see massive PR about Mobile TV shortly. And of course, Slingbox has been available on the iPhone 3Gs for some time. Stay tuned. Hank

The sincerest form of flattery? The North Face doesn’t think so!

http://www.thesouthbutt.com/

University of Missouri student Jimmy Winkelmann thinks you should “just be yourself” and not imitate what others are wearing to try and fit in with the “in” crowd.  So Jimmy came up with The South Butt, a line of clothing that spoofed one of those “in” brands.  “I thought of The South Butt in response to a growing number of people who continued buying gear and clothes from a brand they really didn’t relate to, but were buying because everyone else was.  I decided to create a way to poke fun at the norm, while making an affordable and quality product”.

Jimmy launched his clothing line two years ago but his business just recently took off thanks to all the free publicity The North Face has drummed up for his company. North Face is suing South Butt for trademark infringement and making a lot of noise about it!  Is The North Face merely lacking a sense of humor or is The South Butt a blatant knock off of their logo and trademark? Another great BbB!

Disclaimer on The South Butts website!

We are not in any fashion related to nor do we want to be confused with The North Face Apparel Corp. or its products sold under “The North Face” brand. If you are unable to discern the difference between a face and a butt, we encourage you to buy North Face products.

• Video interview of Jimmy:  http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2009/12/south_butts_jimmy_winkelmann_calls_north_face_lawsuit_best_christmas_present_ever.php

• What North Face has to say video:    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAHU7_ihd04&feature=related

• You Tube video Commercial:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NKz5XiaMXE

• Website:  http://www.thesouthbutt.com/online-store/

Using technology to support social interaction: The case for Skype

From web site

A month or so ago, a neighbor’s daughter was married. At the time of the ceremony, grandma was in the hospital with pneumonia. Obviously she couldn’t attend the ceremony. The family, not rocket scientists by any stretch of the imagination, set up a Skype link and grandma watched her grand daughter’s wedding from her hospital bed. The use of Skype to support such social interaction, and other venues like Justin.tv is on the increase. People like to watch football games together; some people soaps. Whatever floats your boat, herding is built into our DNA.

A female entrepreneur in Indianapolis, Jessica Acres has taken this concept a step further. She gathers with a few friends via Skype to watch soaps such as General Hospital and Days of Our Lives on a regular basis. She started a web site named 411onSoaps.com , where they post the latest twists and turns from the soaps. In so doing, she is using technology to insert another social layer into soaps. Twitter [feed here]  is also used in such settings to chat about the latest show “goings on.” There is ample evidence on the web site that she is monetizing her efforts. Alexa data is shown below. Not bad for a mother of two and a full-time college student! Hank

From Alexa.com

ENTR200 + Prezi.com = Uber Presentations

Prezi logo from Techcrunch

For the upcoming Spring 2010 semester at Purdue University, I am requiring my ENTR200 [Into to Entrepreneurship & Innovation] teams use Prezi.com [Twitter] for at least one of their major presentations [success and failure cases]. So what is Prezi? Prezi is a nonlinear flash-based glitzy way of providing information which supports extreme zooming. Their web site states “Prezi is a web technology startup company from Budapest. Our workspace is based in downtown Budapest…..” Techcrunch had glowing reviews of Prezi back in April; it is worth your time to browse through the comments also. Below is a Q&D Prezi I made for first day of class. Hank

Purdue Entrepreneurship Program Info

An informational session will be held for any  students interested in participating in our Study Abroad trip to Shanghai and Beijing on May 15-30, 2010.    Costs, airfare, registration, and itinerary will be discussed.

If you have already enrolled for the program on the Study Abroad website, please submit your $400 deposit to me as quickly as possible.  Available spots are filling quickly.

The session will be held on Thursday, February 4, 2010 in MRGN 121 at 5 p.m. Need more info: Sherry Height shight@purdue.edu, (765) 494-1314

========

2010 Certificate Program Spring Events:

February 16, 2010: Entrepreneurship Event at Purdue Research Park (KPTC)

February 23, 2010: Burton D. Morgan Business Plan Competition

April 2, 2010: Elevator Pitch Competition

April 14, 2010: Leadership Luncheon with Matt Painter and Gene Keady at the BDM

April 14, 2010: Entrepreneurship and Innovation Student Recognition Event at Discovery Learning Center

April 22, 2010: Certificate Program Senior Send Off at Purdue Memorial Union for May Graduates

May 15-30, 2010: Global Entrepreneurship in Beijing and Shanghai, China

Please contact me should you have any questions or concerns. Thanks and I hope you have a wonderful Spring semester!

Sascha

******************************************

Sascha M. Harrell

Program Coordinator

Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program

Phone: 765-494-3805

Email: smharrel@purdue.edu

1201 West State Street, #220C
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2057

Google proves they are the dumbest bunch of geniuses on the planet

From "here" link

Those of you not living under a rock know that Google just released its Nexus One smartphone. In so doing, they introduced a new business model to the mobil phone industry, that where phones were sourced not from the carriers, but from a third party which also supplies the operating system, Android, on which the phone operates. For all of this they were applauded in the press. However, a real glitch in their business model is now surfacing – customer support. Seems there isn’t any involving real people, just forums and email. More about this disaster is here. There is a lesson here for all entrepreneurs-you have to hold your customer’s hand. Hank

Have A Happy Friday: She’s Not

Thanks to BIL Jerry for today’s grin. Hank

Who is Limor Fried & adafruit.com?

From Technology Review

So glad you asked. Many have the conception that high tech companies are started by unwashed males drinking Jolt and coding all night in some garage in California. Not true. Herein lies the tale of a young lady, with an advanced degree from no less than MIT, whose company adafruit.com, resides in New York City. A great article about her and her company, from which the pic left was copied, is here.

“Ms. Fried, who runs a hardware design business from her apartment, also laser-etches customized designs into iPods and laptops for about $30 each. From her Web site, www.adafruit.com, she sells plans and kits for electronic devices. They include kits for a universal remote control ($19.50) — to turn off any television in your vicinity — and a set of lights for bicycle spokes that spell out words and draw symbols as you ride ($37.50).

Ms. Fried uses the tools of industrial rapid prototyping, including lasers and premade electronic circuitry” according to John Biggs in an article in the NY Times.

But there’s more to the story than meets the eye. What’s behind the name of her company, adafruit? What follows is my conjecture. Way back in the dark ages there was a object-oriented programming language named Pascal which was also one of the first programming languages compiled for the Apple II computer. My youngest son Jason and I bought it for $525 (ouch!). It was, in due course, followed by a programming language named Ada. Seems that the name Ada (Lovelace) is revered by Geeks. “In 1953, over one hundred years after her death, Lovelace’s notes on Babbage’s Analytical Engine were republished. The engine has now been recognized as an early model for a computer and Lovelace’s notes as a description of a computer and software.” [Quote from here and much more on Ada's history.] In short, her notes include (Section G), in complete detail, a method for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers with the Engine, which would have run correctly had the Analytical Engine ever been built. Based on this work, Lovelace is now widely credited with being the first computer programmer and her method is recognized as the world’s first computer program.

So we take “ada” + “fruit” and we have a name along the lines of  bearing fruit from Ada’s original work some 160 years ago. That ought to be geeky enough for the most uber geek out there. Hat’s off to Ms Fried and all the giants upon whose shoulders we attempt to stand on.  Hank

Fair Oaks Dairy Adventure – a BbB

Dairy farms have been around for centuries and have never seemed all that interesting.  Sure cows are cute, and we love to eat dairy products but who ever woulda thought you could make a theme park out of one?  “Build it and they will come” has most certainly worked for the family who imagined and then convinced others to invest in this mega idea.  Fair Oaks Dairy Adventure near Rensselaer, IN, just an hour and a half north of West Lafayette on I65, attracts over 1.5 million visitors each year.   It spans over 25,000 acres and is home to more than 30,000 cows.  80 calves are born there each day and you can watch (gross or amazing depending on how you look at it).  2.5 million pounds of the official milk of the Indianapolis Colts are produced there daily. What’s really amazing, though, is how this business runs like a well oiled machine.  The tourists pay to see the cows.  The cows produce award winning cheese and ice cream which the tourists wait in line to buy on sight in the Fair Oaks Dairy Store.  While hanging out in the barns, the cows eat a lot of food paid for by the tourist’s price of admittance.  While the tourist buses pass through the barns to look at the cows, the cows pass their digested food.  This cow manure is then vacuumed up and converted into energy (methane gas) powering generators which provide electricity for all of the facilities on Fair Oaks farm.  It’s a completely self-sustaining, technologically advanced, dairy farm reinvented to attract consumers.  Who knew all of these people would come, spend a day, spend money and leave happy? Not since Walt Disney has anyone had such a grandiose vision!  Make your Spring Break reservations today! Beth Carroll aka Blog by Beth

RolcoGames spawns entrepreneurs

Recently I visited an Indiana company named PackageRight Corporation(PRC) located in Tipton, Indiana. PRC was started in 1991 by a fellow entrepreneurship instructor at Purdue University, Mike Cassidy, who in turn sold the company to two 1993 MSIA Krannert graduates in 2007. PRC makes on the order of 10 million puzzles per year, quite a feat! They also make board games, which use small plastic parts as part of the game per the picture at the left. Herein lies the story for entrepreneurs.

RolcoGames decided making small plastic parts for game board manufactures was no longer lucrative, and planned to exit the business. Since these parts are an integral part of a product line for PRC, PRC made the decision to buy the line from RolcoGames as indicated on their web page. Pretty standard stuff so far. But there’s an interesting twist. Along with providing parts for PRC, there was a sideline business of providing replacement parts for current game users – the parts that get lost, eaten by the dog, or otherwise disappear. Initially, PRC’s management was inclined to abandon this aspect of the newly acquired business. John, the CEO of PRC, has children aged 4,6 8 and 10, and decided to set them up in the business of supplying replacement game components. A 250 compartment bin to hold individual parts was set up in their home. The kids come home from school, access the web to see what orders came in during the last 24 hours, then fill and mail the requested parts. This entirely kid-run startup, grossed on the order of $24,000 in 2009. And margins? Cost of goods sold is on the order of $1,000. Companies around the world would kill for such margins. What’s in your wallet? Hank