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Monday, June 11, 2012
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Refynr Brings Communication To Conferences At ... - AustinStartup
In late 2010, founder and CTO, Aaron Longnion wanted to capitalize on the rush to filter the social media firehose and launched an early version of Refynr. After paltry revenues and only a few thousand users, Longinion packed it up for the Valley and went to work for Adobe. Despite the move, Refynr wasn?t dead yet.
Its second life came by way of a call from an event coordinator who wanted to build some custom feeds for a few upcoming conferences. And while that first customer didn?t pan out, the (don?t call it a pivot) shift was underway. Longinion?s next move was adding?Kentucky-based entrepreneur?Matt Langan to the team, which accelerated things enough to get the company?s?first dashboard out the door and streaming tweets at a live conference, all in about a month.
Since that project in February of this year, Refynr?s dashboards have powered four conferences with more in the works. Getting in the door and building the right partnerships is a big part of Refynr?s focus these days. The pitch is utilitarian to most customers after the light bulb goes off.
?Planners win by providing a dashboard to their attendees and receiving a new coveted sponsorship opportunity to sell,? said Longinion.??The dashboard?s sponsors win by getting in front of attendees and event fans across the globe. Not to mention, attendees can easily share, network and get a real-time look at their event from a single interface,? he added.
One of the things customers like is the flexibility of the platform. Refynr?s dashboards aren?t just cookie-cutter frameworks, but do share some common features. All are web-based and optimized to run on any device. And if you?ve seen the tool, you?ll notice there?s a main feed and a filtered feed, showing relevant updates pulled from Twitter.
?We?re filtering much more than a hashtag,? added Longinion. ?We can get as specific or as all-encompassing as an event planner desires, which can mean hand-picking Tweets or using a variety of keywords and phrases to filter the updates.?
Not?surprisingly, Longinion says clients also like its slideshow capability, which streams real-time images uploaded from Twitter. Another nice touch is the ability for users to connect their own Twitter accounts, eliminating the need to run multiple native or web-based social publishing apps. So far that mix is working enough to catch the attention of others in the tech and venture community.
In April, Refynr started the 8-week Venture Forth startup accelerator program at Tech Ranch Austin. In another stroke of serendipity ? on day one ? the Refynrs met their eventual VP of Sales, Chris Savage, who just happened to be the former National Sales Manager for Bellagio in Las Vegas. Within a few weeks Chris joined the team.
With Savage?s HRM expertise, that?s where things get more interesting for the company. It?s easy to see how its tools could penetrate other parts of the event or hotel manager?s portfolio of services. Tie-ins with the concierge, local businesses, and slew of other providers in the travel and entertainment sector could rapidly expand their services. For now though, Refynr is on the pitch trail, honing its core capabilities.
It sure is.
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Friday, June 8, 2012
Stylish jug texts you when the milk is spoiled
3 hrs.
Technology has come to the rescue for those who detest sniff-testing milk for spoilage. The Milkmaid will do it for you and send you a text message when it?s time to go shopping.
The concept was the winning entry in a contest sponsored by social product development company Quirky?and GE?to improve everyday objects by adding software.
The Milkmaid is a stylish, tapered glass jug that holds up to a quart of milk that sits in a metal base loaded with pH, weight, and temperature sensors that periodically check for freshness and how much is left.?
When the milk is going bad, LED lights change from green to orange?-- rendering moot?the sniff-test. The contraption will also text you when you?re running low or the milk is spoiled.
An app, still under development, can also deliver on-demand stats about the milk. Think you might have left the jug on the counter too long? Check its temperature. Not sure you?ll have enough milk for pancakes in the morning? See how much is left.
How much we?ll have to pay for this luxury remains an open question for at least a few more days. There?s also?the question of who will find this useful enough to keep the battery charged and remember to pour store-bought milk into the container to take advantage of the tech.
You can watch the pitch video below.
--Via TechCrunch and Gizmodo?
John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website and follow him on Twitter. For more of our Future of Technology series, watch the featured video below.
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SUPERDENSECRUSHLOADFACTOR Decease Estates music ...
"Decease Estates" is the latest project from Superdensecrushloadfactor, a multi instrumentalist Avant prog artist, Gabe Buller. On this followup album Gabe again composed and produced the album using a 4 track recorder. He plays drums, guitar, bass, keyboards and mandolin and all vocals are courteous of his good self. His music is atmospheric RIO jazz fusion improvised using primarily guitars. This album resonated with me as a break from all the symphonic and Heavy Prog I have been listening to lately, and as an Avant album it is refreshing that it is not focussed on disturbing the listener. 'That One With Gapeworm' begins things with a repeated guitar phrase that locks in as an estranged slide guitar is heard moaning underneath. Simple structures of music make a fun way to begin proceedings and the twanging mandolin is a nice way to merge into the next piece of weirdness.
'Vandalize Stock Photos' is a lengthy piece with some outstanding free form drumming. A melodic mandolin motif chimes in giving the listener something to latch onto that may resemble an actual tune. The Avant approach is definitely present throughout but it is still accessible due to a high emphasis on creating an atmosphere that at times feels Oriental. Once again the drums are sporadic and delightfully urgent and off kilter especially the timpani and high hat interplay. The music continues with some acoustic that almost sounds like the guitar is out of tune, but I love how it is consistent in putting together chords that should not go together naturally, but Gabe makes them feel natural.
'Subliminals Repeat Until They Become Blatant' begins with some static that reminded me of Godspeed You! Black Emperor for a moment. There is quite a dark feel with the insertion of heavy notes that are dissonant and compete with natural figures. The metrical shapes on percussion are more consistent but still rough around the edges. Later the guitars are distorted and the heavier approach is welcome after all the jangly jazz playing. The drums really crash down hard and balance off the metal riffing.
'Key to the City" is a shorter blast of dissonance with off kilter guitars and augmented with vocals that are surprising after all the instrumentation. The vocals are processed and filtered giving it an unearthly sound.
'Progress' is a real strange one with actual vocals and lyrics that are esoteric. The lead break is all over the place with a rhythm that is consistent but the guitar sound is more like The Residents. I like the twin lead guitar at the end and this actually feels more like a song and therefore wonderfully out of place. The diversity of the album is compelling as one never knows what to expect next.
On cue the next track 'Oppressed Ones Take to the Tyrant With an Axe' (great song title), returns to the dissonance with sliding guitars sounding like a bottle pressed against the strings. The rhythm is fractured and again it reminds me of The Residents sound, minus the bizarre vocals. The guitar plucking in the middle is disjointed free form and very laid back, not even keeping to a time signature. It feels improvised but still keeps to the main melody, and it takes up most of the song, but I was waiting for the axe to come down. Sure enough, eventually drums crash in without warning and blast away with hyper speed and some lead guitar licks. After this shock of sound, it again settles into a nice relaxed style to finish off before cutting off abruptly.
'Vandalise Stock Photos in Your Sleep' is a very short 52 second piece dominated by acoustic finger picking. It makes a nice transition into the title track.
'Decease Estates' is the last track and the experimental jazz feel is strong. Guitars play switching from acoustic fingering to crunches of distortion. The drumming keeps a steady tempo for a while and then the cadence speeds up considerably. The track is one of the heaviest with the crashing drums and metal distortion.
Overall this is a solid Avant jazz fusion album with enough diversity to hold the interest. It is great to see that artists are maintaining an original approach to music these days, and it should appeal to those who are into experimental Avant music with strong atmospheric resonance.
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The states with the widest gap between rich and poor
Spencer Platt / Getty Images file
Scene form New York City: A businessman walks by a homeless woman begging for money. New York tops the list of states where the wealth gap is greatest.
By Michael B. Sauter, 24/7 Wall St.
While some income inequality is generally considered necessary in a free market economy, extreme inequality is not. In the United States, there are far more poor people than wealthy ones -- and the gap between the rich and poor is growing. Income inequality is a problem among more developed countries, but the U.S.?is?among the worst.
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The U.S.?has?the fourth worst income inequality compared to other developed countries, according to the?Organisation?for Economic Co-operation. ?Though some are better than others, all 50 states have higher inequality than most of the developed world.?24/7 Wall St.?examined?the 10 states with?widest gap?between the rich and poor.
Scored between one and zero, the Gini coefficient is a measure used by economists to rank income inequality. Zero reflects perfect income equality, where everyone makes the same. A score of one reflects an economy where one person has all of the money and everyone else has none. Higher numbers represent significant concentrations of wealth, extreme poverty, and a limited middle class.
The Census began tracking inequality in the U.S.?in?1967. The Gini coefficient was 0.397 then. The most recent number puts it at 0.469. Though states range from 0.419 in Utah to 0.499 in New York,?America?s income divide has widened.
While the states we examined have high inequality, they?re not?necessarily?wealthy states.?Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, have among the lowest median incomes in the country and also have the worst income inequality scores.?States with the highest incomes, including?Connecticut, Massachusetts and California, are also on the list.? All ten states have -- relative to the size of their middle class -- a large percentage of their population living at one end of the income spectrum, and in some cases large percentages at both ends.
In four of the states on this list, more than 7 percent of households earn at least $200,000 each year, much larger than the national proportion of roughly 4 percent. On the other side of the spectrum, five of these states have among the top 10 largest percentages of households earning less than $10,000 each year. Only two of these states, New York and California, have very large proportions of both extremely wealthy households and extremely poor households.
Having a large population appears to be a factor contributing to inequality as well. Of the states on this list, eight are among the 25 most populous states in the country. The four most populous states -- New York, California, Texas and Florida -- have among the worst income inequality. It appears that a large, populous state is more likely to have extremely poor rural areas and large citieswith?wealthy suburbs.
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While having high or low median income does not appear to correlate to high income inequality, education does. Looking at the percentage of the population 25 years and older with a high school diploma, eight of the 10 are in the bottom third. This includes California, Texas and Mississippi, which have the three least educated populations in the United States.
In addition to state Gini coefficient scores, which were provided by the Census Bureau, 24/7 Wall St.?reviewed?the distribution of household income in these states, as well as the median income. We also considered the percentage of residents 25 years and older with at least a high school diploma and the percentage with at least a college degree; the percentage of households below the poverty line; and the percentage of households receiving food stamps.
These are the states with the widest gap between rich and poor.
1. New York
- ?Gini coefficient:?0.499
- ?Median income: $54,148 (14th highest)
- ?Households earning $200,000 a year or more:?7.4 percent (6th highest)
- ?Population living below the poverty line:?14.1 percent (21st highest)
New York is the state with the highest income inequality, though its Gini coefficient has decreased from its 2009 level of 0.502 to 0.499. Median income has increased significantly from $50,216 in 2009 to $54,148 in 2010. Also, the number of households earning $200,000 or more increased from 6.15 percent in 2009 to 7.4 percent in 2010. The population living below the poverty line has decreased slightly. Despite dropping from a Gini coefficient above 0.5, New York still has a long way to go.
2. Connecticut
- ?Gini coefficient:?0.486
- ?Median income: $64,032 (4th highest)
- ?Households earning $200,000 a year or more:?10.3 percent (2nd highest)
- ?Population living below the poverty line:?10 percent (5th lowest)
Connecticut has the second-worst income inequality in the U.S., with a 0.006 jump in inequality since 2009. Median income has increased from $63,851 in 2009. Slightly more households have fallen below the poverty line since 2009, but Connecticut maintains its position as one of the states with the smallest number of residents living in poverty. As much as 36 percent of Connecticut residents over 25-years old hold a bachelor?s degree, which is the fourth-highest rate in the country and helps explain why Connecticut enjoys some of the highest rankings of high-income households in the country.
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3. Louisiana
- ?Gini coefficient:?0.475
- ?Median income: $42,505 (10th lowest)
- ?Households earning $200,000 a year or more:?3.5 percent (tied for 23rd lowest)
- ?Population living below the poverty line:?17.7 percent (5th highest)
Though Louisiana?s 2010 unemployment rate of 7.5 percent was lower than the national average and the lowest on this list, Louisianans face other constraints limiting upward mobility for the majority of households. A sizable portion of the population has not completed their high school education -- only 82.5 percent of residents older than 25 had a high school diploma, while only 21.8 percent had a college degree. Additionally, though much of the population may be employed, 15.3 percent of residents received food stamps, and the state?s median income is lower than all but nine states.
4. Massachusetts
- ?Gini coefficient:?0.475
- ?Median income: $62,072 (6th highest)
- ?Households earning $200,000 a year or more:?9.0 percent (4th highest)
- ?Population living below the poverty line:?12 percent (13th lowest)
Massachusetts has the fourth-worst income inequality in the U.S. --?worse?than its 10th place in 2009. Median income has increased considerably from $59,373 in 2009, while the proportion of households earning more than $200,000 remained in fourth place. More households have slipped below the poverty line as the poverty rate has increased from 10.3 percent in 2009. Massachusetts? top ranking in the country with the highest percentage of individuals over 25 holding a bachelor degree may exacerbate the income disparity.
5. Florida
- ?Gini coefficient:?0.474
- ?Median income: $44,409 (15th lowest)
- ?Households earning $200,000 a year or more:?4.1 percent (20th highest)
- ?Population living below the poverty line:?14.9 percent (16th highest)
With an unemployment rate of 11.3 percent in 2010, Florida has had trouble creating the jobs necessary to eliminate its sizable income gap. Though 8.1 percent of Florida households earn at least $150,000 a year, 12.4 percent of the state population remain on food stamps. Many Floridians live in extreme poverty, as Florida has the third-largest number of households -- in excess of a quarter million -- earning less than $10,000 a year. Yet the opposite strata of the income distribution is also well occupied. Florida has the fifth-most households earning more than $200,000 annually.
Read the rest of the list of states with the widest gap between rich and poor?at?the 24/7 Wall St.?website.
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Thursday, June 7, 2012
Manhattan Stealth Touch Mouse
The Manhattan Stealth Touch Mouse ($69.99 list) is the latest touch-enabled computer mouse, the likes of which have been steadily on the rise ever since Apple introduced its Magic Mouse ($69.99 direct, 3.5 stars) a few years back. Unlike a typical mouse, this species of mice relies exclusively on a touch-sensitive surface, so instead of clicking with your fingers, you tap and swipe as you would a touch-screen. In the case of the Manhattan Stealth Touch Mouse , the possibilities of the touch-sensitive surface are simultaneously realized and squandered. On the plus side, the absence of right- and left-click buttons yields a stylish minimalist design that radiates sophistication; it's like the champagne of computer mice. On the down side, though, the Stealth Touch is fairly limited in terms of functionality. Beyond the standard left- and right- click and vertical and horizontal scrolling, as well as a "presentation mode" that allows the mouse to act like a remote, there's not much else the Stealth Touch can do. Two-finger gestures for enhancing Web browsing or zooming are sorely missing. The end result is a mouse that, albeit gorgeous, comes with a somewhat steep price tag that's somewhat difficult to justify.
Design
The first thing you'll notice about the Stealth Touch, even before you install it (an endeavor barely worth mentioning, because it requires little beyond plugging in the dongle and waiting for the driver to install itself) is its unique design. You'd be hard pressed to find a mouse that lives up to its name more than the Stealth Touch. It's an object lesson in minimalism. Unlike the Apple Magic Mouse ?and the Microsoft Arc Touch ($67.95 list, 3.5 stars), there isn't a dedicated touch scroll. Rather, the Stealth Touch's streamlined aesthetic is more on par with the Logitech M600 Touch Mouse ($69.99 list, 4 stars) since there aren't any buttons to be found on this mouse. But the Stealth Touch takes the minimalist approach one step further; whereas the Logitech M600 is adorned with a dark grey color pattern, the Stealth Touch's all-black matte finish?dubbed "SilkTouch" coating by Manhattan?resembles an onyx. The only noticeable design is a Manhattan insignia and logo next to your thumb (assuming you're right-handed) that glows a faint blue light once it's turned on. Otherwise, the Stealth Touch mouse could easily pass for one of those hide-a-key rocks.
Of course, you won't be hiding any keys in this mouse. You can, however, hide the included USB dongle in a slot located on the underside, so the Stealth Touch can be taken on the go without any worries. Adjacent to the dongle slot is a compartment for the two AAA batteries (included) as well as two parenthetically-shaped glide strips that allow smooth movement on most surfaces. And oh, how it glides. The Stealth Touch feels as good as it looks. Its slipper-shaped body fit comfortably in my palm, and the "SilkTouch" coating provided a smooth yet textured grip for my fingers, allowing them to slide gently along the surface. All of this makes for a comfortable mouse that, while initially odd-feeling, soon felt surprisingly zen-like.
The fact that a few terse sentences sum up the Stealth Touch's design is a testament to its minimalism. Of all the mice I've seen, it's easily the best-looking and quite possibly the most post-modern in the sense that it simultaneously challenges the notion of what a mouse should look like while adhering to its basic aesthetic. But, alas, I'm not an art critic, so as much as I like the Stealth Touch's appearance, it's equally important to see what it can do.
Performance
So what can the Stealth Touch do? As it turns out, pretty much the same things that an ordinary mouse can. While simplicity was clearly the goal behind the Stealth Touch, functionality was compromised in this pursuit. Unlike the current Editors' Choice for touch mice, the Microsoft Touch Mouse ($79.95 list, 4.5 stars), the Stealth Touch does not offer full gesture support, so don't expect to swipe through pages on your Web browser.
And while I appreciate the minimalist aesthetic engendered by the Stealth Touch's tap-sensitive surface, the absence of traditional clicking has its drawbacks. Beyond the fact that it's initially quite strange not having the reassuringly tactile "click" accompany my actions, more intuitive controls, like dragging and dropping or selecting text, never felt quite right. This is mainly due to the fact that the Stealth Touch requires a double tap for each, which, in the case of dragging and dropping icons, has the inadvertent effect of opening them at times. With this exception, though, the Stealth Touch performed other basic mouse functions like clicking and scrolling, with ease.
The Stealth Touch also utilizes what Manhattan has dubbed "Curve-Touch" technology, which detects when the mouse is no longer placed on a surface. When this is the case, the mouse turns into a makeshift wireless presenter that lets you scroll through documents, web sites, and PowerPoint slides by horizontally sliding your thumb. Once placed back on to a solid surface, "Curve-Touch" technology causes the Stealth Touch to automatically transition back to its regular operating mode. Nominally speaking, it's a nice feature, though not something I'd consider particularly useful in most day-to-day settings.
Aside from its touch-sensitive surface, the Manhattan Stealth Touch mouse is at its core an ordinary mouse. For this reason, it falls somewhere between decent and fantastic, as its incredible design is undermined by its limited functionality and steep price tag. For a touch mouse that really harnesses this innovative click-free technology, the Editors' Choice Microsoft Touch Mouse ?is still the one to beat, even if it isn't the prettiest.
COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Manhattan Stealth Touch Mouse with several other computer mice side by side.
More computer mice reviews:
??? Manhattan Stealth Touch Mouse
??? Corsair Vengeance M60
??? Roccat Savu
??? Razer Vespula
??? Razer Naga Hex
?? more
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