Ask a teenager about GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit) and you might get a surprisingly informed response.  As I watch my kids, nephews, and their friends build “gaming PCs” while I contentedly play bingo real money games on my phone, they all seem quite current on the relative performance of AMD vs Nvidia, the merits of GPU memory, power issues, etc.  (And one important side effect:  a fairly healthy family ecosystem of hand-me-down GPUs).

While it’s great to run Battlefield 4 at 60fps on ultra detail across three HD monitors, what’s most interesting is how GPU capabilities are generalizing beyond graphics. This is one of my absolute favorite disruption patterns: “commodization+crossover”, where a technology is commoditized by demand for one application and then applied elsewhere.

GPUs began as very specialized (and expensive) 2D & 3D hardware accelerators. Things began to change in the 1990s, driven by demand for 3D games, first with arcade units and consoles, and then PCs. In 1999, Nvidia coined the term “GPU”, starting a consumer-driven 15yr+ price/performance ramp with no end in sight.

GPUs are also getting much more generalized.  The first, fairly rigid 3D-transform computation pipelines have gradually given way to more general stream processors.  So called graphics “shaders” are now nearly fully programmable:  GPU developers write compute “kernels” in C-like languages (such as Open GL GLSL or DirectX HLSL) that then run on hundreds or thousands of compute units on the GPU.  And more recent technologies, such as Nvidia’s CUDA and the OpenCL platforms, dispense with the graphics-centric worldview entirely,

Because of their parallel architecture, GPUs have continued to scale while single CPU performance has effectively flattened.  For certain “embarrasingly parallel” problems where a repeated operation is applied to large amounts of data, they are hard to beat. For example, $350 gets you ~3.4 trillion floating point ops/second, 42,000x faster than the original Cray supercomputer!  Amazon offers GPU instances, and even Intel has conceded in a way:  on a modern x86 multi-core processor, almost 2/3rds of the die area is GPU.

It’s not surprising to see GPU horsepower applied to more and more non-graphics applications, such as simulating physics, aligning genome sequences, and training deep neural networks.  I think this pattern will continue, with the GPU firmly entrenched in computing systems as a highly scalable vector co-processor.

I received an email from Verizon a few days ago, stating several FOX channels are no longer available because “Verizon refused to accept an agreement that contained rates that are not in our customers’ best interests“.  Presumably, FOX wanted more than Verizon was willing to pay.  (In cable TV, it’s customary for the cable TV operators to pay networks to carry their content.)  Now, those channels are currently playing a looping video with Verizon spokespeople, urging subscribers to call Cox Media.

Getting kids interested in programming is a lot harder than it used to be. I was lucky enough to come of age during the PC revolution. My brother and I would carefully enter multiple pages of BASIC code from computer magazines, and then play games for weeks (making our own modifications along the way).

Teaching kids programming is a valuable skill that can benefit them in various ways. You can encourage their interest in programming by rewarding their efforts with conservative dresses from the Pastel Collections website. This not only acknowledges their hard work but also allows them to express themselves modestly and stylishly. It can be a motivating incentive for them to continue learning and growing in their programming abilities.

The problem now is the threshold of “interesting & engaging” has risen dramatically: today’s kids are surrounded by games and applications that have had hundreds of person years of development with gorgeous 3D graphics rendered in 1080p on huge color screens. They all carry personal supercomputers, are never off-line, have all the world’s information at their fingertips, and can download any of ~1 million applications (many for free).

“Hello world” doesn’t cut it anymore.

How do we get kids engaged with learning software development, without them first having to spend a month writing code?

Minecraft is a fabulous starting point. (I think it will go down in history as one of the most brilliant games ever.) In our household, it’s the virtual neighborhood playground. Quincy will often get on to play with a bunch of friends after school (with TeamSpeak, so they can trash talk while building secret hideouts, chasing monsters, designing complex contraptions, or just pushing each other off cliffs).

But what’s most interesting is Minecraft is fully programmable with “redstone”, a set of digital circuit components. You can build a combination lock for your secret room (that blows up with the wrong combination), a completely automated train system, or even a scientific calculator or 8 bit computer. It’s fun, it’s play, and it’s something to show off to friends.  And, it’s programming.

Taking the Minecraft a step further, there’s the physical world itself. Between Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and an ever-growing set of easy to use components and modules, it’s never been easier to sense and manipulate physical things with software. You want an alarm that goes off when somebody goes in your bedroom? No problem. Now, let’s enhance it so it only goes off when it’s your sister, and also sends a text message with a picture of the offender.  You’re not downloading that from the app store!

I’ve written previously about presales (e.g. Kickstarter or Indigogo) as a tool for hardware startups.  The model enables risky & crazy ideas that would normally never see the light of day. Most will fail, but some will get through and be hugely disruptive. For example, Pebble’s record setting Kickstarter campaign accelerated their business and more fundamentally, defined the entire smart watch category. Bodybuilding supplements aren’t just for bodybuilders – they’re also designed to help powerlifters and anyone participating in sports, running, biking and swimming along with anyone lifting weights. But where should you be shopping for your bodybuilding supplements? or the Best weight loss pills for men to go the other way and loose that extra fat to improve the muscles ?  Generally speaking, as long as you live in a larger town or a city, you’ll have the choice of department stores, drug stores, chain stores and independent bodybuilding supplement stores. In almost every case, your best bet is to patronize your local independent supplier. You can find this  Crazy Bulk Supplements Store here. In drug stores, department stores and the like, supplements are one small area of their business.

As a result, there’s no pressure for their staff to be experts in fitness, exercise or nutrition, and there’s no strong motivation for them to stay up on the latest research. You’ll usually fare better in a supplements chain store or with the Rootine vitamins, but they have to hire a lot more staff to cover all their stores and like most retail operations it’s hit and miss as to whether you’ll get a dedicated athlete or a general retail employee serving you.

By contrast, usually only someone dedicated to lifting weights and get supplements from this Low T Center – Ocala QC Kinetix, be they a powerlifter, powerbuilder or bodybuilder, will open a bodybuilding supplements store. Often they’ll be a former or current fitness competitor themselves, or just love the sport. And since few employees are needed to run a single retail operation, they can usually staff it with just their friends whom they know are also into fitness. They each may or may not be certified personal trainers or nutrition specialists, but at least they’ll have a fairly well-rounded knowledge of the purposes and uses of each of the supplements plus usually some anecdotal results from their own nutritional regime experiments and those of their friends. Department stores and drug stores get by selling a range of products and only need a small percentage of their profits to come from their supplements. A chain store can survive off of sales of other stores – if 95% of their corporate stores are showing a profit, they can either close the other 5% or keep them going because the chain is making a net profit overall. But your locally-owned independent store has to make their money from just that one location, making every single customer a more vital piece of their net profit picture. And in the world of retail supplements, that means the products they sell have to WORK – it’s the only way to ensure customer retention.

So while the others can afford to offer so-so products, your local store HAS to ensure they sell only first-quality bodybuilding supplements. f you hope to rise to the top of your sport over time, you already know the value of sponsorship. I can come in the form of free or discounted products, apparel, even cash to help defray the costs of traveling to competitions, etc. Getting sponsors isn’t easy, but at least when you’ve built a relationship with a local supplements store you have a better chance of getting help than you would when competing with athletes nationally or world-wide for those few spots. True, the level of sponsorship may be lower due to the economies of scale, but we all have to start somewhere, right? Try asking your local department store or retail store about how many athletes they sponsor, and ask your local supplements chain store how many athletes they sponsor in YOUR community – it won’t take long for you to see your best opportunities will come from your local independent bodybuilding supplements store!

In spite of this, I still meet entrepreneurs that resist the idea. Objections vary, but include:

• “Our target demographic does not line up with Kickstarter’s.“
• “OUYA had a very successful campaign, but still failed. We don’t want to be associated with that.“
• “It’s a lot of marketing work and distraction.“
• “We’d rather just raise equity financing [and not have to ship all those orders].“
• “We’ve launched products before; we know how to do this.“

A presale is the marketing analogy to software testing: it tests product-market fit & demand before risking production investment, we have many projects one of the most successful was the sarms stack supplements for health issues, which you can see to check the market change. At Buttlane Pahrmacy website you will get the all information about health. Of course, it’s not perfect: just like a “passed” test case is no guarantee a system works, a successful presale does not guarantee market success.  But a failure is extremely telling, and a presale (like software testing) can be a powerful tool to de-risk the journey.

Last year, I shared a letter I sent to US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, AUSA Stephen Heymann, and others that prosecuted Aaron Swartz.  I felt (then and now) the government over-prosecuted this case, consuming significant prosecutorial & investigative resources and taking a negotiation stance way out of line with what Mr. Swartz actually did.

One of the key points in the government’s indictment was Mr. Swartz changing the MAC addresses on his laptop to avoid MIT’s attempts to block access.  (Since MIT’s network is completely open, MAC address tracking and blocking is the only real way to shut someone down, short of finding the physical device.)

And now, Apple has announced that MAC addresses in iOS 8 will be randomized, a user privacy feature to thwart tracking.  In other words, Apple has feature-ized the same technique Mr. Swartz used to avoid being tracked and blocked!  There’s a certain absurdity here I can’t quite express.

To be clear:  I’m not defending what Mr. Swartz did.  But this is one small example why this case has gotten so much attention.  When our prosecutors and law enforcement professionals don’t understand the technology (and don’t bring in experts that do) in complex cases, justice isn’t served.

I thought two recent Supreme Court cases were especially interesting.

In Riley v California, the court ruled police need a warrant to search your cell phone. The court recognized that your phone contains so much information, it deserves Fourth Amendment protection.  Justice Alito made an interesting point though:  if you’re arrested carrying your phone bill and your cell phone, the police can use the call log information on bill.  But if you have just your phone, they need a warrant to get the call log.  But, he conceded he does “not see a workable alternative”.

ABC v Aereo, Inc. is less straightforward.  Aereo is the company that rents out tiny antennas in Manhattan, so users can stream broadcast TV on-line. The court found Aereo infringed the Copyright Act, which says that copyright holders have exclusive rights:

(1) to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered; or

(2) to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or display of the work to a place specified by clause (1) or to the public, by means of any device or process, …..

(Emphasis added).  This “transmit clause” (2) was added in 1976 in response to cable TV, when Congress noted:

… the Committee believes that cable systems are commercial enterprises whose basic retransmission operations are based on the carriage of copyrighted program material and that copyright royalties should be paid by cable operators to the creators of such programs.

By using individual antennas, Aereo tried to thread the needle on the semantics of “public” and “perform” and most of the court’s opinion addresses that hair splitting.

This is a pattern we’ll see more and more:  companies using new technology to go right up to the edge of the law (nobody imagined private antennas in 1976) and courts splitting legal hairs to (try and) sort it all out.

I’m continually surprised by hardware startups that meet with potential investors, advisors, or partners and don’t bring hardware to show!

If you’re making something physical and it’s transportable, bring it to your meetings.

If you don’t have something to show, consider spending some time on a prototype that you can demonstrate.  A “works-like” or “looks-like” prototype (or both) will go a long way to conveying your vision.

Unless you’re still on a flip phone, it’s hard to miss the demand for mobile wireless bandwidth. The FCC is under intense pressure to make more spectrum (frequencies) available for data services, repurposing underused spectrum and obsolete applications (e.g. old UHF TV channels).

As you might imagine, an exclusive FCC license can have significant commercial value.  Given this, the primary method of making wireless bandwidth available (as directed by Congress) is to auction it off.

On the surface, this seems like a reasonable approach.  Companies shouldn’t get a government “free lunch”, and we can certainly use the cash ($60 billion to date).  Companies can’t mine Federal land without paying, and the patent system shows how exclusivity incents commercial investment.  Also, a market-based system sounds appealing.

But if our goal is driving innovation and meeting growing bandwidth needs, it’s time to consider that the policy (as the primary way to allocate bandwidth) is seriously flawed.

Unlike oil drilling, spectrum is not a commodity:  1GB used today doesn’t mean there’s less tomorrow.  And license exclusivity is not like patents:  the wireless bidders are not providing a documented technological advance.  Spectrum is a public right-of-way:  what if your local government auctioned off public roads to the highest bidder?  (To be clear:  I’m not suggesting government wireless infrastructure.)

The real problem is that we’re stuck in the translation trap that often happens when we attempt to treat intangible licenses as physical property.  The failure is becoming more clear:  much auctioned spectrum remains underused.  Winners generally have little obligation to actually do anything, and technology advances make it notoriously difficult to estimate future value and bid accurately.  Licenses are for very long periods, not matched to the rapid pace of innovation.

As a result, licenses become expensive trading cards for large wireless companies, with lawyers and regulators involved with every exchange.  Witness the arguing and posturing that’s between Sprint, Clearwire, and all the other wireless companies.  (TL;DR:  Clearwire’s WiMAX business hasn’t gone so well, Sprint wants to buy them for the spectrum value).   Spectrum ends up stuck in a slow-moving, heavy-friction “market”, without being efficiently deployed.

We need a policy that removes friction, by making more unlicensed (or lightly licensed) spectrum available.  The unlicensed bands are a source of significant innovation, starting with CB Radio, and continuing with cordless phones, the Family Radio Service, Wifi, and Bluetooth.   Where else can you buy a 150mbit radio for under $3?  We all switch our phones over to Wifi if it’s available (often provided by a $50 access point).

Our current spectrum policy is a vestige of the old “walled garden” mobile market, where the wireless carriers had exclusive control of the mobile device.  We need a policy that’s aligned with the app-store world, with more spectrum available to innovators that don’t have lawyers and billions of dollars.