IdeaBurner - Karolis Karalevicius

Another reason to travel

Mon, 23 May 2011 22:53:47 -0700

I can list plenty of reasons why traveling is awesome, not the least of which is the excitment of...

"There are lots of useful things we can do to rearrange daily life in the USA that would put people..."

Mon, 23 May 2011 21:25:59 -0700

“There are lots of useful things we can do to rearrange daily life in the USA that would put...

Crossing border from MN to Iowa (Taken with Instagram at...

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 11:51:13 -0800

Crossing border from MN to Iowa (Taken with Instagram at Minnesota / Iowa border)

Goodwill and no-nonsense values

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:20:02 -0800

StartupBus began with a premise that if you put sharp people on the bus, including all associated...

"Find purpose. The means will follow."

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 20:20:15 -0800

“Find purpose. The means will follow.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Where do good ideas come from?

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 20:59:33 -0800

As I watched this video, parallel between it and the environment that we create on the StartupBus...

StartupBus community is about to get much larger

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 21:50:00 -0800

Last February my friend Julie brought to my attention this article on TechCrunch about this 48-hour...

Things to Watch in 2011 A 100-item laundry list of predictions...

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:54:00 -0800

Things to Watch in 2011

A 100-item laundry list of predictions of what will be popular in tech for the year 2011. There are some interesting trends emerging. Many items in that list are predicting a significant trend of technologies merging and going mainstream. Take for example Facebook’s growing ability to provide value to retail/e-commerce industry (big reason for Facebook enormous valuation at $50billion), e-book/tablet industry branching out to deliver education content and smarter (adaptive) learning environment, combination of growth in mobile devices and dead-simple blogging platforms increasing number of people blogging/journaling, growing area of physical goods being connected to each other and tracked…. etc.

I am especially fascinated by the acceleration of interaction among different platforms that are taking advantage of each other’s strengths (Facebook + Bing + NYT + JCPenney + Foursquare + Groupon + Hunch). Slowly everything online is becoming personal and even the good ol’ offline world is becoming simpler to navigate and decide via technologies that connect people to their peers who are not there physically but have left a digital mark (ie review, check-in). We’re already seeing a ton of things changing how we experience them: from what articles you read online, to what music you listen to, what t-shirt or book you decide to buy in-store or online, which restaurant you pick for dinner and even how you research/browse information online.

Emergence of these hybrid services will make our world look more and more like a futuristic movie. A word of caution: while I have a fairly open view on privacy, the possibility that at some point the government will command ability to monitor every single step you take in this blurred universe of physical and virtual worlds, can make crime almost impossible - a clear hint at Minority Report. Not that crime is a good thing, but wouldn’t trying to prevent 100% of it results in death of free will? Even in George Orwell’s 1984 there was a way to avoid being constantly tracked by the “big brother”.

Overall, I see two interesting themes starting to really take off:

Technology will accelerate the speed at which it allows us to modify real-world experience (ie. virtual mirrors that let you preview items that may not even be there in the physical world) and it will be done with unimaginable levels of personalization, which leads to the second point ->
The gap between physical and digital is narrowing - 3D printing will allow to make physical goods faster, easier and cheaper. Also, we buy physical world experiences and goods through digital marketplaces like Amazon and Groupon. Or alternatively we use real world money to buy virtual good on domains like SecondeLife and Zynga’s games.

~~Closing thought~~: when many think that all has been discovered, invented and achieved, we’re only beginning to see the possibilities, the tip of the iceberg.

Arcade Fire - Ready to Start

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 20:02:49 -0800

Arcade Fire - Ready to Start

Skype is cheap

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 11:15:50 -0800

As a gesture of apology for their big outage, Skype sent me a $1 coupon for their service. Come on...

Smart move by Tony Conrad (Founder of About.me)

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 21:28:16 -0800

AOL’s acquisition of About.me was the fastest exit I have ever read about - less than 1 week...

What you see here is not a map of the world based on political...

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:07:35 -0800

What you see here is not a map of the world based on political borders - it’s a visualization of friend connections among a random sample of Facebook’s users. It’s beautiful and amazing how our friendships replicate our physical world.

colorlines: “Mr Waldman is right to suggest that today’s...

Sun, 24 Oct 2010 12:31:30 -0700

colorlines:

“Mr Waldman is right to suggest that today’s Republican alarm and Democratic light-heartedness are partisan phenomena. But one is no sillier than the other. The majority of Democrats who saw government as a threat in 2007 were right to do so, and nothing truly significant has changed since then. Likewise, the overwhelming majority of Republicans who were at ease with the state in 2007 were profoundly misguided; one wishes they had been roused from their oblivious slumber for better reasons. The Gallup graph is truly troubling because it shows us that each party’s base of supporters is more or less blind to government’s threat to freedom when their favoured team is in power. Which is to say, their dogged partisan team-spiritedness keeps Americans from unifying to perceive and combat very real threats to their liberties and lives.” (via Partisan bias: The danger of the partisan mind | The Economist)

The Flock of Business(wo)men to Politics

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 19:47:03 -0700

Here’s a solid statement regarding all the hype of business people trying to bring their...

thegongshow: Online Ad Revenues broken down by display...

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 11:30:13 -0700

thegongshow:

Online Ad Revenues broken down by display type.

Which slice of the pie are you aiming to take?

bookshelves: El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore in Buenos...

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 23:02:56 -0700

bookshelves:

El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Converted from a theatre.

"Whether it’s tied to an entrepreneurial vision or simply made part of your every day life, giving..."

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 22:53:00 -0700

“Whether it’s tied to an entrepreneurial vision or simply made part of your every day life,...

Are you hypomanic? According to the article, Seth of Scvngr is.

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 20:41:00 -0700

Are you hypomanic? According to the article, Seth of Scvngr is.: As much as it’s hard to...

"Mobile now is a bit like the web / browser experience was in the early days of the Internet. The..."

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 15:46:00 -0700

“Mobile now is a bit like the web / browser experience was in the early days of the Internet....

Saganashkee Slough. Even a slough can be beautiful.

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 15:43:36 -0700

Saganashkee Slough. Even a slough can be beautiful.