Start-ups need to start

What a pity that one of the most exciting areas in business, start-up companies, is also one of the most neglected. Many of the 40 start-ups featured in this Upstarts issue struggled to get venture capital and some had to live on their credit cards to pay the bills. But they still recorded explosive revenue growth because of the sheer drive, determination, talent and passion of their founders. Some of these companies will go on to bigger things, some will struggle to sustain fast growth, and others will merge. A handful might turn out to be duds.

That is the nature of starting a fast-growth company. On some estimates as many as 60% of start-ups fail within the first six years, which might help explain the reluctance of venture capitalists to provide funds. But it is also likely that Australia's young venture-capital industry has a lower risk-tolerance than its peers overseas and that there is too much focus on how much money the providers of private equity make on their exit.

However, that is the market and start-up companies need to adjust their strategies to succeed. They need to think about sustainable growth over at least five years and plan for running a larger business. This is where many fall down.

Read more...

Dont be Debt Dumb

With all the talk in the past few weeks about rising interest rates and household debt levels, one important finding has been overlooked. In its most recent statement on monetary policy, published on February 7, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) noted that we are saving more.

We are so used to the image of ourselves as reckless spenders, about to be ruined by debt as interest rates rise, that many of us panic needlessly when rates do move. Most of us will do just fine, although it makes good sense to review our borrowings and investments when something as fundamental as central bank interest rate policy does change.

Debt is good, but also bad. So in away its sort of neutral. Which could be a good thing if you have a positive outlook or bad if you're pesamistic. On the other hand, why spend money to get money. Or you could just steal money. Like steal an armoured vehicle. Best place to do this is apparently Ireland. But 3 million pounds does convert quite nicely...

Ruminator write up on Achewood

At the moment Achewood is my favorite comic. And so there is a new article on the comic and its creator in a magazine which is supposed to specialise in all things arty.

Ruminate on this

Australia v Iraq...

SMEGmail offers 1 terabyte storage - Breaking - http://www.theage.com.au/technology/

One terabyte of free online email storage is on offer from British researchers beta testing a quantum-based, grid computing spam filter.

The project, run by London's Supercomputing Methods Experimental Group (SMEG), aims to prove the commercial viability of the group's revolutionary spam filtering technology announced two years ago.

It uses microscopic black holes - created when cosmic rays travelling at near the speed of light collide with tiny particles in the Earth's atmosphere - to form a grid of ultra high speed "write only" memory.

The group's one terabyte SMEGmail project will initially be invitation-only, and the announcement comes as Yahoo! increases the inbox capacity of its free web mail service to one gigabyte - matching what is offered by Google's Gmail and exceeding what Microsoft's Hotmail offers.

The spam filtering technology is based on the research of Austrian theoretical physicist Erwin Schrodinger, says SMEG spokeswoman Shirley Knott.
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"Just as Schrodinger's cat is both dead and alive until you open the box, when your inbox is reduced to an sub-atomic level every email will be both spam and non-spam until it is opened," Knott says.

Being quantum based, SMEGmail may in future permit omnipresent Instant Messaging - allowing users to be everywhere in the universe at once. The use of entangled quantum pairs - two particles that stay in synch no matter how far apart they are, somehow exchanging information faster than light - could allow Instant Instant Messaging.

The developers are still struggling with location-based SMEGsearch, which at the moment tells you every pizza shop in the world is simultaneously your nearest fast food outlet.

SMEGmail's use of quantum computing has already caught the attention of NASA, which is beta testing the service after a torrent of interplanetary spam crippled the onboard computer of the Mars Spirit rover this time last year.

Isnt just a little scary thinking about that much email. I was also scared after reading the article...

Koizumi to bring back Safari Suits

In a bold move, typical of the stylish Japanese PM once dubbed the silver fox (if only by me), Koizumi is set to bring back Safari Suits for his cabinet, possibly as a result of spotting this early picture of the current PM of OZ ...

I just want the hat.

[Note: there is a picture which you may find hillarious.]

Time Cube

No one can be told what the time cube is. You have to see it for your self.

Sexy Losers

Today I found a new comic which is definatly safe for anywere but behind closed doors. Its not porn, but a comic strip which has people in it which just may happen to be naked. Also the strip is vertical asapposed to horizontal like most other strips.

Its called Sexy Losers

The funniest so far is #233 (I'm working backwards).

Its not funny, but its not that sad either

Sony has been ordered by a court to stop selling its blockbuster PlayStation consoles in the US and to pay damages of $90.7m (£48m) to a small Californian software company.

Immersion Corporation sued Sony last year on the grounds that the giant Japanese electronics and media company had violated its patent rights. The dispute is over a technology which makes games consoles vibrate in time with actions in games.

The David-and-Goliath struggle has so far gone against Sony in two court decisions. Sony denies its Dual Shock technology infringes Immersion's patent. It said yesterday it would launch an appeal against the latest ruling by a federal court in Oakland, California.

Until the appeal is concluded, Sony is allowed to continue selling PlayStations in the US. The 47 individual games that are also affected by the patent infringement allegations will also continue to be on the shelves.

A final decision against Sony could be hugely damaging, and its shares slid on Tokyo's stock market yesterday.

Computer games are vital to the company's growth, as profits from its consumer electronics business have slid in recent years. Sony has lost out to Asian competitors such as Matsushita, which makes Panasonic products, which have been quicker to introduce ground-breaking technology to the market.

In a surprise announcement earlier this month, Sony said the Welsh-born Sir Howard Stringer - who currently runs its US division - would become its new chief executive. Top of Sir Howard's agenda will be to shake up the electronics arm to try to make it more competitive.

Sony's PlayStation models have, however, been enduringly popular. Along with Microsoft's Xbox, PlayStation 1 and 2 are the best-selling games platforms in the world.

Shares in Immersion, which develops and licenses digital technology, soared 36 per cent but fell back to close up 16 per cent in New York. The compensation Sony has been ordered to pay is three times its total revenues last year of $23.8m.

Games accounted for 44 per cent of Sony's operating profit during the three months to December. Last week Sony's next big hope for a sales boost, the Portable PlayStation, or PSP, went on sale in the US.

The pocket-sized device, which costs $250, is an attempt to take on Nintendo's handheld Game Boy, and is also a response to the massive popularity of Apple's sleek products, such as the iPod digital music player.

hahahah

More 3D chalk drawings

These are new.

I think if I could draw I would love to be doing stuff like this.

Big Mac and B.I.G Mc Mac

"I got two big macs and they taste big. I want another but I cant fit my fat hand into my money pocket no more. Yo."

This guy doesnt like technology in cars

Chris speaks his mind about....nanny cars

Save to by

Toby is a rabbit. He will die if you dont send money to the man holding him captive. Help toby move out of the kitchen and into his own place.

Save Toby!

Whats in the box

Untitled Document...

Nigerian 419 Scam

The scammers get scammed...

Flaws in Mozilla browsers soar

Damn open type software, and hackers are the ones who are supposed to report these things, but noooo.... lets keep it our little secret then steal everyone cookies...


I wonder if this article is some how coincides with the release of firefox version 1.0.2....

1gig of Yahoo

Yahoo is now giving away a gig of space on their email service. Which is just super. Now all they need to do is get rid of all the ads.

Transparent Screens

I think it would be easier to do it on a laptop because you can flip the screen down to take the shot and then upload it to the computer and take another picture but this time with the screen up... But still its cool

Its see through... or floating icons, like a hologram...

Stacy DVD

"Stacy" takes place at the beginning of the 21st century, when teenage girls around the world have suddenly been dying - after a brief bout of giddiness called "Near Death Happiness" - and rising as flesh-eating zombies. And those zombies can only be destroyed by being cut into 165 pieces.

Now available on the internet [Jusk tiding... renting is fun.]

Heat Island Effect

Damn air conditioners. Isnt it ironic that air conditioners (things that keep us cool) actually make it hotter. Which means we need something to cool use down. Air conditioning can do the job. But its becuase of the air conditioners that make it a degree or two hotter. Which means you need more air conditioners to cool you down...

Japanese News now available on whiteynet

I found this news site when I was looking for the air conditioner pictures. Its pretty cool, kinda like that other japanese news site "somethingsomethingjapan" (I remember becuase I posted it recently) Anyway this site is much better and not just the fact that the writting and news etc is better but just better to look at and just more information. Which is good. As apposed to lacking in information. Which by logic is bad. But not bad bad, just lacking in goodness.

News.3Yen.com

To illustrate my likedness of this site I present the passionfruit kitkat being sold on Valentines day in Japan (but its called white day in Japan...)

Air conditioning

Industrial pictures... not that theres anything wrong with that.

[from 3yen which got it from boing boing boing]

Jessica Alba

Jessica Alba is gona be in CQ.

But why post this on the internet? The internet is much better then a crappy magazine.

Firstly there is the issue of the pole dancing movie Sin City. Then you have these pictures. And then you have even more pictures.

Congo militia 'grilled and boiled victims': UN - World - www.smh.com.au

Militiamen grilled bodies on a spit and boiled two girls alive as their mother watched, United Nations peacekeepers charged on Wednesday, adding cannibalism to a list of atrocities allegedly carried out by one of the tribal groups fighting in north-east Congo.

"Can I have some more breast?"

mmmm brain food....

Financial Review BOSS | Hear it from the BOSS- The Big Ideas

What are the ideas that will shape your career and business in the next five years? What are the trends that will define the way we live and work? Which ideas will give your company the edge?

Get ahead of the curve as you hear from business and community leaders and thinkers. They will identify the developments inareas from science to the economy that will change your world in the next few years. Broadcaster and commentator Adam Spencerwill lead an expert panel through a discussion designed to provoke debate about where our world is heading.

Big Ideas - the event/transcript

shuggleftulation

"Dear Cecil:

All of us old enough to be allowed to walk down the street by ourselves have experienced that peculiar encounter with an oncoming stroller characterized by dance-like and indecisive movements from side to side, as each participant helplessly fences with the other in an effort to avoid a head-on collision. This raises not one but three questions: (1) is there a word for this type of encounter, and if so, (2) what is it? (3) Whatever happened to 'keep to the right' as a guiding principle for pedestrian traffic? Your answers to these questions will help immeasurably in my personal campaign to re-educate the public in the niceties of moving right along. Think how I will impress total strangers if I can emphasize to them the value of keeping to the right in order to avoid '----ing.' --J.G., Chicago

Cecil replies:

Let's keep this talk of '----ing' to a minimum, J.; we're trying to run a family column around here. I am pleased to report that at least one attempt has been made to give a name to the little two-step you describe: shuggleftulation, 'the actions of two people approaching, trying to get around each other, and muttering 'thanks for the dance'.' My source here is Rich Hall's Sniglets (Collier Books, 1984), a sniglet being 'any word that doesn't appear in the dictionary, but should.' Other sniglets, as long as we're on the subject, include elecelleration, 'the mistaken notion that the more you press an elevator button the faster it will arrive,' and pupkus, 'the moist residue left on a window after a dog presses its nose to it.' Worthy though these efforts may be, I can't help thinking 'shuggleftulation' doesn't quite cut the mustard, so I've trying to think up something better. The possibilities so far include sidewaltz, minueticate, and (my personal favorite) doing the concrete quadrille. No sensitive person can fail to be impressed by the poetry of these suggestions. However, if anyone has ideas of his or her own, and is desirous of seeing same immortalized in print, I am invite you to submit them forthwith."

The Straight Dope

Bikini Bottom Catalouge

www.a-s-s.ch
vs
www.wickedweasel.com

Its like porn but without the warning.s
I wonder if you could make clothing with less materia.l

Growth Metrics

Whether a biotech company or a tractor manufacturer, all companies are valued the same way—by discounting future earnings back to today. In between “today” and “the future” other metrics can be useful to get part of a company’s story, but they are generally not sufficient to really understand the value of the business.

"I've only got ten bucks." "okay that'll do.".............

Foil Feind

Someone with too much time decided to annoy his sister (when is that not an option..) and wrap up her entire personal space in foil.

Its sort of a take of filling the cubical with polystyring balls.

Shredding Demonstrations

Watch stuff get shreaded in the great shredding machine which shreds stuff.

How to win every argument on the internet

You are all wrong.

1. Never defend your own points
2. Claim you work in whatever feild you are arguing about
3. If loosing an arguement, feign frustration and then claim you're blocking the person
4. At some point in time, claim the other person is a nazi

Blogging can be good for your career

Untill you get fired...

1. You have to get noticed to get promoted.
2. You have to get noticed to get hired.
3. It really impresses people when you say “Oh, I’ve written about that, just google for XXX and I’m on the top page” or “Oh, just google my name.”
4. No matter how great you are, your career depends on communicating. The way to get better at anything, including communication, is by practicing. Blogging is good practice.
5. Bloggers are better-informed than non-bloggers. Knowing more is a career advantage.
6. Knowing more also means you’re more likely to hear about interesting jobs coming open.
7. Networking is good for your career. Blogging is a good way to meet people.
8. If you’re an engineer, blogging puts you in intimate contact with a worse-is-better 80/20 success story. Understanding this mode of technology adoption can only help you.
9. If you’re in marketing, you’ll need to understand how its rules are changing as a result of the current whirlwind, which nobody does, but bloggers are at least somewhat less baffled.
10. It’s a lot harder to fire someone who has a public voice, because it will be noticed.

Memory Improvement Techniques

Flexing the noodle

Sachin Says "study"

Sachin Tendulkar on Wednesday advised school students writing Board examinations across the country to concentrate on their studies although he admitted the lure of watching the exciting India-Pakistan series would be difficult to resist.

The Top 100 Gadgets of All Time

1. APPLE POWERBOOK 100, 1991

RedNova News - Science - Artificial Muscles Get a Grip on Human Hand

First robots that can kill humans because there are no laws to stop them... now we have robots with artificial muscle stronger then a 17 year old boy. Hopefully Microsoft will get the contract to build the AI.