Wednesday, March 26, 2008

VCs regain interest in open source - Linux.com

Here's an excerpt of the article by Bruce Byfield of Linux.com:

Venture capitalists (VC) first discovered open source during the dot-com bubble at the turn of the millennium. When the bubble burst, open source was connected closely enough with its general failure that all but a handful of VCs lost interest. In the last few years, however, investor interest has started to return, due to growing acceptance of open source software and the success of existing open source companies. What now attracts investors to open source companies, VCs say, is the higher probability of innovative ideas and quicker time to market, as well as the ability to develop niche markets that were previously too small to develop profitably. If they see that the fundamentals for any successful business are in place, investors are finding firms founded on open source well worth considering.

For Lisa Lambert, managing director for software solutions investment at Intel Capital, the renewed interest is obvious as an increasing number of VCs compete for each investment opportunity. In the last few years, she says, "We've found that on every deal." It's one reason why Intel Capital started its Open Source Incubator Program, whose goal is to find projects to fund before their work is monetized. Kevin Harvey, a partner at venture firm Benchmark Capital says that, "There was resistance earlier, but now I think there's tremendous exuberance" at the thought of investing in open source companies.

Lambert can effortlessly reel off the names of VC firms interested in open source investment, including Charles River Ventures, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, and Byers.

Click here to read the full article

Summer@Highland 2008

Awesome opportunity for student entrepreners who would like to work over the summer on some of theie ideas!

Summer@Highland 2008

Are you a student (graduate, undergraduate or even recent grad) with a business you’d like to rapidly accelerate this summer? If so, the Summer@Highland 2008 program may be just what you need!



Following the success of last year’s inaugural Summer@Highland, we are again offering stipends, office space, and experienced advisors to a small number of students with ambitious aspirations for building their businesses.



What we’re looking for



We are especially interested in having you spend the summer with us if:

• You’ve a leadership team with vision, passion, and drive

• Your business has the potential to be highly-disruptive in its area

• Your business initiative is showing momentum. While you may, or may not, have incorporated, you’ve more than a vague concept in mind

• You have real depth of expertise in your technology/market of interest

• You can direct us to some advisors who see your business’s potential as you do



Particulars of Summer@Highland 2008



1. The program is open to current graduate and undergraduate students, as well as recent (December 2007 or later) grads. At least one member of the team must meet this criterion.

2. Teams can comprise 1 to 4 persons.

3. A single person team will receive a $7,500 stipend for the summer.

4. A multi-person team will receive a $15,000 stipend.

5. Teams will reside in office space in Highland’s Lexington, MA or Menlo Park, CA offices (or, an exception basis, in our Geneva or Shanghai offices).

6. Teams are required to work full time for 10 weeks. Start and end dates are flexible and to span the period of June through September 2008. Teams are expected to share our office space with us during this full term

7. Each team will have a Highland sponsor who will be the team’s gateway to advice and counsel from Highland’s investors and industry network.

8. In consideration of these benefits, but not to overly constrain the teams, we ask that if a team goes on to raise venture capital within 180 days from the end of the program, then Highland be provided the option to co-invest in up to 50% of the total financing round.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Intelligent computer simulation programs

">



Aother one: Crayon Physics Deluxe Game


Intelligent computer simulation programs

Another Computr Vision Research product -- www.modiface.com

ModiFace’s patent-pending technologies empower consumers to redefine their images by automatically visualizing face enhancements, treatments, and modifications. A new diet, a new hairstyle, or a new dermal filler treatment: with a single click and in seconds, every day thousands of individuals are seeing the possibilities using ModiFace.

See the attached new piece below:

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Emerging Technology Trends - Anywhere computing

I would like to chronicle some of the emerging technologies as I read about them at various blogs/analyst reports etc. To begin with let's look at one of the basic theme proactively required by the users -- Anywhere Aplications.

One of the revolutions which is defining and enabling the 21st century business evolutions is the ability of the internet to chase the user, rather than the user chasing the internet. For this to happen, the applications developed must be devise-aware (it doesn't matter which device users use - laptops/PCs/Ultra Mobile Devices), network-aware (broadband/WiFi/WiMAx), and user-aware (Context-driven based on role, connectivity, process), which is how the Yankee group defines an Anywhere application.

Demand for these Anywhere applications is strong today as the Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio summarizes in the exhibit below. (click here to read the full report)




Email applications such as Microsoft Exchange server is closest to being Anywhere application as it is aware of different devices, networks, and users. The Salesforce.com comes closer to meeting the Anywhere applications definition as well -- it is devise and user aware, but the application is not network aware. With the advent of Mobile internet devices such as iPhone which uses different networks, Wifi/Wap/Edge, the applications can benefit by being network aware and making intelligent use of sessions and different connection methods.

One of the major concerns of Anywhere applications is security and lack of single apps view -- new applications and innovations (SOA) would certainly try to bridge the gaps between current client/server architecture and Anywhere computing to provide better IT experiences to customers. Moreover, new location based intelligence technologies such as RFID, GPS, MApping tools, application developers can integrate these innovations to become more netwrok and user aware, thus providing even better user experience and accelerated ROI.

Monday, March 17, 2008

New tools that analyze the lighting in images help spot tampering -- Technolgy Review

Photo-editing software gets more sophisticated all the time, allowing users to alter pictures in ways both fun and fraudulent. Last month, for example, a photo of Tibetan antelope roaming alongside a high-speed train was revealed to be a fake, according to the Wall Street Journal, after having been published by China's state-run news agency. Researchers are working on a variety of digital forensics tools, including those that analyze the lighting in an image, in hopes of making it easier to catch such manipulations.

Tools that analyze lighting are particularly useful because "lighting is hard to fake" without leaving a trace, says Micah Kimo Johnson, a researcher in the brain- and cognitive-sciences department at MIT, whose work includes designing tools for digital forensics. As a result, even frauds that look good to the naked eye are likely to contain inconsistencies that can be picked up by software.

Click here to read the full rticle at Technology Review

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Robotics start-up Willow Garage believes open source OS will soon put robots in our homes - VentureBeat



From the VentureBeat news:

If Menlo Park-based start-up Willow Garage has its way, in just a few years you’ll be able to hire a robot to come and clean your house once a week.

The company is building open-source robots and giving them away to university research groups in an attempt to fuel quick improvements to the operating system and rapid build-out of applications to run on it.

The company plans to deliver 10 robots to US universities by the end of the year, says Willow Garage president and CEO, Steve Cousins. “We might deliver more robots later, maybe up to 50″, he says. The company will release its open source software at the same time.

“You have to have the device to start inventing applications,” Cousins says. “Usually the first step in building a robot is to create the hardware and then the software. Now we give a ready made platform for research groups to start from.”

Click to read the full article at VentureBeat

Friday, March 7, 2008

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers launches a $100M iFund

Click here to read the info directly at KPCB website

iFund

KPCB’s iFund is a $100M investment initiative that will fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod touch platform. The iFund is agnostic to size and stage of investment and will invest in companies building applications, services and components. Focus areas include location based services, social networking, mCommerce (including advertising and payments), communication, and entertainment. The iFund will back innovators pursuing transformative, high-impact ideas with an eye towards building independent durable companies atop the iPhone / iPod touch platform.

"A revolutionary new platform is a rare and prized opportunity for entrepreneurs, and that's exactly what Apple has created with iPhone and iPod touch," said John Doerr, Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. "We think several significant new companies will emerge as this new platform evolves, and the iFund will empower them to realize their full potential."

"Developers are already bursting with ideas for the iPhone and iPod touch, and now they have the chance to turn those ideas into great companies with the help of world-class venture capitalists," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We can't wait to start working with Kleiner Perkins and the companies they fund through this new initiative."

The iFund will be managed by KPCB Partner Matt Murphy in collaboration with partners Chi-Hua Chien, John Doerr, Bill Joy, Randy Komisar, Ellen Pao and Ted Schlein. Apple will provide KPCB with market insight and support.

VMWare and Hypervisor & Client Virtualization markets

Seeking Alpha has an interesting article, where they compare VMWare with Netscape, and analyze the Hypervisor and Client virualization markets. Clicke here to read the article: Is VMware the Next Netscape?