David Lidsky's Blog, page 4862

Today in Most Innovative Companies [UPDATED]

Daily news of note about our Most Innovative Companies, including Intel, Frito-Lay, Nike, and Hulu

Intel: President and CEO Paul Otellini announced today a $3.5 billion initiative to combat unemployment in the U.S. The Invest in America Alliance, supported by Intel and other VC firms, hopes to prop-up the tech industry by injecting a huge amount of capital into high-potential markets, from clean technology to biotech. Coupled with its $7 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing facilities...

eBay Opens Up About Installing Bloom Boxes and Their Room for Improvement

The Bloom Box fuel cell device has been the subject of plenty of controversy since its unofficial unveiling in a 60 Minutes segment earlier this week. The device, which has already been installed on the campuses of major companies like eBay, Google, Staples, and FedEx, converts natural gas into electricity. But how efficient is it? Is the box worth the money?  Amy Szoczlas Cole, the Director of eBay's Green Team, spoke with us briefly about eBay's installation of five Bloom Boxes.

According...

Today in Most Innovative Companies

Daily news of note about our Most Innovative Companies, including Intel, Frito-Lay, Nike, and Hulu

Intel: President and CEO Paul Otellini announced today a $3.5 billion initiative to combat unemployment in the U.S. The Invest in America Alliance, supported by Intel and other VC firms, hopes to prop-up the tech industry by injecting a huge amount of capital into high-potential markets, from clean technology to biotech. Coupled with its $7 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing facilities...

Los Angeles Swaps 21 Billboards With Art

Work by Kerry Tribe; photo by Gerard Smulevich, courtesy of the MAK Center for Art & Architecture

From the hundred-foot supergraphics that coat historic buildings like Christo sculptures to the garish digital screens that cast a sickly glow over once-dark neighborhoods, Los Angeles seems to be losing a battle with ugly billboards. So the timing of a new large-scale urban installation that replaces mega-ads for McDonald's Mac Snack Wraps with works of mega-art by Kerry Tribe (above) couldn't...

Microsoft and Amazon Sign Deal Granting Access to Each Other's Patent Porfolios

Microsoft and Amazon have inked a cross-license agreement in which both companies have access to the other's patent portfolio. The terms of the deal are frustratingly vague, although we do know that despite the symbiotic way the deal is presented, Amazon will in fact be paying Microsoft for this access.

Apparently the deal covers "a broad range" of products, with Amazon's Kindle and internal servers named specifically. Both of those products run a version of Linux, which could be where the...

KieranTimberlake Wins Commission for the New American Embassy in London

After almost 200 years at the same location in the posh Mayfair neighborhood of London, American diplomats will be moving across the Thames to a new building in 2017. And today, Philadelphia-based firm KieranTimberlake took home a hefty commission as its design was selected for the new U.S. Embassy. If you think it looks like a castle, you're right: The $1 billion EFTE-covered cube even has a moat, which the architects hope will deter any unexpected guests. But the airy fin-like skin and a...

MIT Student Designs All-Terrain Wheelchair for the Poor

Almost none of those needing wheelchairs in the developing world have them. A new invention aims to solve that problem.

About 20 million people in developing countries need wheelchairs, but only 1% have them. And that's just the beginning of the problem: Even if those in need had wheelchairs, the probably would work on the rutted and rocky roads that they live with.

So Amos Winter, a PhD student in mechanical engineering at MIT, designed a solution. His Leveraged Freedom Chair is small...

Robert Ludlum Is Dead, but Jason Bourne Rumors Live - on Facebook

Want to know which book may serve as the inspiration for the next Jason Bourne flick? Connect the dots through social media. [Viral Loop Chronicle #9:]

Over the past few months there's been a lot of chattery conjecture about the next Jason Bourne movie. Paul Greengrass, director of The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum--which have a combined worldwide box office take of almost $750 million--checked out from Universal's long hoped for fourth installment, citing "creative...

A New Architecture Award Honors Two Young, Hot L.A. Firms

What does architecture mean now? Like, right now. According to Arch Is_, a new award given by the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects, architecture means bold, gravity-defying forms, experimental materials, and patterns and behaviors inspired by nature. AIA/LA recently named two firms that master these concepts--Oyler Wu Collaborative and Emergent--as its 2010 Arch Is_ winners, effectively declaring them the two firms to watch in Los Angeles this year.

Oyler Wu...

How Much Longer Can Shopping Malls Survive?

There are dead malls, and then there is Dixie Square. The suburban Chicago mall made famous by The Blues Brothers--who destroyed it on-screen in a spectacular car chase--had already closed by the time the film was shot in 1979. It's just sat there ever since, not worth the cost of tearing it down. By now, trees sprout from the parking lot and the ceilings have turned to mush. Every attempt to redevelop the site--into a showroom for kitchen implements or senior housing--has fallen through...