Graeme Thickins on Tech

Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Tag: Tech-Surf-Blog.com (Page 22 of 43)

Geeks, Entrepreneurs, Designers, Angels, VCs, and Marketeers ….. Let’s Mix It Up!

May 4, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Minnebar is Saturday, May 10!  MInnesota’s all-day annual Barcamp event is not to be missed.  New venue this year (bigger and better): the gloriously redone Coffman Union at the U of MN (cool place if you haven’t checked it out yet). To sign up, just go the event site (a wiki page), hit Edit Page, and add your name and links. Minnebar(Minnebar is held once a year, while evening "Minnedemo" sessions are held in each of the other three quarters.)
Already, almost 300 of your compatriots have signed up for this year’s edition of Minnebar, and many more will be as the week progresses. It’s free! That’s right — the whole damn thing! (thanks to the sponsors) … including breakfast, lunch, reception and beers following. You even get a free event t-shirt! And you can come and go as you please, choosing just the sessions that interest you — though I would highly recommend hanging out all day for the networking, which is really the biggest benefit. You can do your own session if you and/or some colleagues have something to say (and if there’s still room). Hit the link that says MinneBarSessions, click Edit Page, and add your title and session description while you still can. In the coming days, the organizers will be cutting off new entries and publishing a full schedule with all the breakout sessions. That should then be available at the event site, or you can pick up a hard copy on your arrival. Come early — the event kicks off at 8:30 am.

Attention Startups and Angels: Note the "Lightning Talks" Session
On the MInneBarSessions page, scroll down and look for a link to apply to give a five-minute pitch.  Ideal if you’re a startup, whether just forming or further along. An entire hour is being devoted to these rapid-fire presentations. This is a great way to see what’s going on out there in our state, hear the latest business concepts and startup ideas, or get updates on the progress of local startups you may have already heard about. [This will be like the DEMO conferences I know so well. My advice: hone the message hard, and practice well!] Minnebar07crowd

This event is gonna be killer, I promise you. If you want to know what’s really goin’ on in tech in Minnesota, you have to be here. Bring lots of business cards, a camera, your laptop (we’ll have mondo wi-fi!), wear your favorite tee, and get ready to learn, share, network, gab, blog and Twitter your brains out, and meet tons of fun, like-minded people.

Hey, in my book, it definitely beats sittin’ on some cold lake fishing!  🙂

Best Surfing Video I’ve Seen in a While

May 3, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Current TV sent me this one, called "Pipeline Posse," earlier in the week. You talk about your gnarly… As I said when I Twittered this link a couple days ago: if you think surfers are crazy, this will definitely prove your point. [And if you missed that tweet, you can follow me on Twitter by just clicking at the right.] Okay, some would call them crazy, but surfers are really a special breed.  Especially the ones who frequent the ultimate wave in the world…along with the massive amounts of other guys competing for position there.  Warning to viewers: this is not for the faint of heart:

This post is part of my continuing objective to take a break from blogging about tech once in a while to pay tribute to my favorite sport. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, as they say. In that same vein, and speaking of the "extreme" side of surfing, I want to say-hey to my buddies up on Lake Superior, who give an entirely new meaning to yet another kind of gnarly. Yes, they surf on Gitchigumi — the ultimate (dangerous) freshwater wave in the world.  If you want to some see Minnesota gnarly, check out the awesome photos on the Superior Surf Club web site.  And here’s a video on spring surfing on Lake Superior, shot by surfer Brian Stabinger in April 2008, I believe featuring one of the top surfers on the Big Lake, his close buddy Bob Tema:

By the way, I want to try to get up to Duluth again this year to watch and shoot pix at the annual "Coldwater Surf Fest" at the Park Point Pavilion — it’s Saturday, June 7, 2008. If I do, I’ll for sure be blogging about it, as I did last year.

UPDATE (5/3/08):  Another great shot on Lake Superior, taken at Thunder Bay, is this one I sent to my buddy at The Surfrider Foundation, Jim Moriarty, who blogged it recently. He blogs at Oceans Waves Beaches.

This Blog’s For You, Bud

April 26, 2008 / / 1 Comment

I love this blog post so much, from my other blog, that I just have to post it here, too.  Well, a least a link to it.  Put it up a little earlier today.  I’ve never done such a thing before, double up like this, but I just have to make an exception for this one.  I mean, how often does a guy get to talk about beer and blogging in the same sentence? Hmmm, I wonder how many beers the employees get to have every day at Miller Brewing?  Okay, excuse the day-dreaming….

Anyway, read the full post — it’s a great social media and marketing story.

Nmwthisblogsforyou

For Innovation in Minnesota, Check Out ‘Minnov8’

April 22, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Here’s the first part of another post I did over at our new multi-author blog called Minnov8:

The
University of Minnesota is among the top patent producers in the world,
ranking #4 on Scientist Magazine’s list of “Patent Powerhouses,” behind
only three other major American universities. Yet, quantity of patents
hardly paints the entire picture. What about helping to start up
companies to commercialize those patents?

Uofmlogo

According to the U’s own business development people (see link to
Powerpoint presentation at bottom), the 20-year success record of the
U’s technology company spinoffs is only half
the university average nationally — and less than one-fourth the
success record of the nation’s premier schools. What’s more, in one
recent year (2004), for example, the U of MN spun off only one company
compared to 14 at the University of Michigan and 16 at the University
of Illinois. Why I am focusing here on spinoffs? Well, because,
according the U’s own business development people, creating university
spinoffs is “much more profitable than licensing (revenues)” to the
school.

And, besides, the largest source of the U’s licensing revenues will run out soon …. post continued here.

Blogging Less, Twittering More…Plus YHOO & GOOG Are Up to Something

April 17, 2008 / / 0 Comments

In case you haven’t noticed, my blog posts here are fewer and farther between these days, just because I’m so damn busy. (I’ll tell you why soon.) But thank god somebody invented microblogging(!), because it sure is easier and faster. I’m sure many of you have seen the accompanying cartoon strip. Twittertwittertwitter_2

But it’s true — Twitter has definitely allowed me, with my crazy schedule, to keep putting forth some of my observations and perspectives on the world around me. I’m grateful for that.

Latest case in point: I Twittered earlier today about how Yahoo’s already reporting positive results from its test with Google to outsource search to the latter. Well, it’s not really the company directly reporting that — rather, it’s the proverbial "people familiar with the matter," according to the WSJ. (But that would most likely be Yahoo or Google employees who asked the reporter not to identify them.)  A Citigroup Global Markets analyst even said this deal could increase Yahoo’s cash flow a whopping $1 billion per year.

Some would say this latest "leak" is all about Yahoo trying to get a better price per share from Microsoft. I don’t agree. Google has more to do than help Yahoo shareholders get another buck or two. I think Yahoo very seriously wants to avoid the Microsoft deal and is working overtime to find a better alternative.  And Google obviously has the incentive to help them do that. I don’t think the latest Yahoo move is just posturing at all. As the Journal says, the only other tie-up that seems to be possible right now is a deal with Time Warner’s AOL, wherein the latter would become a 20% owner of Yahoo. However, the matter of who will win Yahoo seems far from over to me yet. I like to think that News Corp. hasn’t really played its ultimate hand, for example. And, of course, being that they now own the WSJ, I don’t find it surprising that the writer of today’s article didn’t quote anyone on that possibility.

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