Next Gen “Fuzz Busters”
Posted by goodmind on April 3rd, 2008
For anyone seeking an excuse to splurge on a GPS enabled cellphone, let Trapster Mobile Service be your rationalization. It takes a “networked approach” to reporting speed traps, feeding information to maps, and alerting motorists to nearby police presence before it’s too late. Trapster is free of charge, and easy enough to use whether reporting or receiving reports; a critical factor in the success of most user-backed programs.
While the upfront investment in a GPS phone (and wireless data plan) may be offset by avoiding speeding tickets, be wary of accruing other types of traffic citations when using the Trapster service. In states where it is illegal to use a cellphone sans wireless headset, Trapster’s functional reliance on the “pound-1″ keystroke is unlikely to impress state troopers, no matter how slow you’re going. (via Gizmodo)
Bargain Appliances
Posted by goodmind on March 5th, 2008
Shopping for a new information appliance? A cross between a mobile phone and a laptop perhaps? The product your looking for is the Everex Cloudbook; the latest UMPC (ultra mobile PC) to hit the shelves of…Wal-mart? This $400 “subnotebook” runs on a Linux based operating system, called gOS Rocket, and is designed to function as a temporary travel computer. Ideal for motorhome owners come to think of it.
If successful, the Cloudbook could be the Trojan horse that eventually drives adoption further up the Linux appliance chain. Based on our own personal experience with Vista, we rather hope so. It also represents a bit of formidable competition to the ASUS eee PC, another Linux friendly UMPC for the road warrior in all of us, or at least the early adopter road warriors.
Taking Flight
Posted by goodmind on May 12th, 2005
We recently picked up an interesting book called Free Flight, by Jim Fallows. Our initial interest was piqued because we have been following the travails of a startup airplane manufacturer known as Eclipse Aviation, which is covered extensively in the book.
Beyond Eclipse, however, Fallows argues convincingly that small, inexpensive jets will utterly remake American aviation, and, in doing so, transform society. We believe he’s right.
Interestingly, Fallows makes his argument employing what we at Goodmind view as the key to all successful product innovation: outcome-based assessments.
People travel via plane primarily to save time. Since at least the early 1990’s, commercial airlines have been unable to improve, and in fact have been moving backwards, on this crucial outcome.
As articulated by NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, "You are flying through the air at 300-500 miles per hour during the part of your trip that is in the commercial airline. But your average (i.e., mean) speed from when you left your home to when you arrive at your destination is only fifty to sixty miles per hour."
This serious vulnerability is only getting worse, due to congestion, security, and second-order effects of the hub and spoke system itself. (How many of us have been stranded in Denver because of bad weather in Chicago?)
Free Flight convincingly argues that small, inexpensive aircraft "should make it possible for many people, much of the time, to travel the way a very few rich people do now–in greater comfort, without fighting their way to and from the crowded hubs."
We believe this emerging picture of the aviation industry thus qualifies as a "Killer App," as defined by Chunka Mui and Larry Downes in their book Unleashing the Killer App. According to Mui & Downes, a killer app is important not only in and of itself, but has multiple and lasting secondary effects that transpire as a result of its introduction.
Our favorite example of a killer app from their book is the stirrup:
"The stirrup made it possible for a mounted fighter to strike his lance without falling off his horse, greatly increasing the force that could be behind such a blow." Stirrups also "made possible a mounted calvalry, a new element in the battle equation." Furthermore, "to support the specialized fighters of the calvalry, Charles Martel created a new class of landed gentry who had sufficient income from the land he gave them to provide horses, men, and expertise. To do this, he seized some of the vast holdings of the Catholic Church … he also created a political system in which farming peasants were answerable not only to the king, but also to landlords, who became known as knights."
All from a little piece of metal. What will a world look like in which it is possible for the average man or woman to commute hundreds of miles conveniently, safely, quickly, and cheaply?
Lastly, we find Free Flight to be interesting because it further reinforces the inherent strength of distributed systems–for physical objects, such as people and energy, as well as data. And just in case you think we are overwrought, consider that one of the major investors in Eclipse Aviation is the godfather of another revolution in low cost, distributed systems that changed the world, Paul Allen.
(See 60 Minutes for their coverage of the incredible number of aviation entrepreneurs tinkering around the country.) Also check out Day Jet.
