Entrepreneurship

Calvin & Hobbes Creator’s Life Lessons Become Beautiful New Comic

"As much as I'd have loved it if comic-creator Bill Watterson had kept working forever, there's something bittersweet about the fact that Calvin & Hobbes is no more. While Calvin and his pet tiger may never go on a new adventure, we can continue to learn lessons from Watterson and his creations, as evidenced by this new comic by Zen Pencils artist Gavin Aung Than. The comic below is Than's rendition of an excerpt from Bill Watterson's 1990 speech at Kenyon College (site of David Foster Wallace's famous 'This Is Water' speech, as it happens). It is just lovely. Read it, and prepare to feel emotions." Continue reading →

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Researcher: Facebook spammers make $200 million just posting links

"Spammers posting links on Facebook fan pages to send people to third-party scam sites are earning $200m every year, according to calculations by a team of Italian security researchers who have investigated hundreds of thousands of posts on the social network. Trying to catch and get rid of the spammers is a growing problem for Facebook. The revenue that the spammers do not form part of Facebook’s revenue, but instead piggyback on the success of the social network, which now has more than a billion users worldwide. In April, the Italian team uncovered the multimillion-pound business of selling fake Twitter followers, estimating then that as many as 20m were created by spammers." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingResearcher: Facebook spammers make $200 million just posting links

Cold call victim forces telemarketers to pay him by using premium number

"A British man fed up with cold calls from telemarketers set up a premium phone number in November 2011 and has made £300 by accepting calls and keeping the annoying marketers on the line as long as possible. Lee Beaumont, who works at home in Leeds, UK, was getting calls at all times of the day. 'I thought there must be a way to make money off these phone calls,' he told the BBC. He set up an 0871 line (equivalent to a 900 line in the US), which forces people who call him to pay 10p per minute. Of that, he receives 7p (about 10.9¢). He now gives out his 0871 line to any business that might cold call him, while giving friends and family a different number." Continue reading →

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TEDxMogadishu 2013 Theme: Rediscover

"2012 saw the rebirth of Mogadishu and the first ever TEDx event in Somalia. In 2013, we will reflect on the past, present and future, exploring the ideas, innovations and traditions that once built and will again rebuild this country. Peace has continued to take hold, children are playing in the streets, and the beaches are filled with weekend swimmers. A parliament has been formed, constitution approved, and a new cabinet of ministers is leading Somalia back onto the international stage. Every day that goes by is a historic day, and TEDxMogadishu will highlight the incredible voices that have fought against all odds to make this possible. It is time to rediscover Somalia." Continue reading →

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Jeffrey Tucker: Canada: Land of the Freer?

"With QuickBt, consumers are buying bitcoins and then transferring them to merchants. No harm, no real money exchange as traditionally defined, no sneaky financial trickery. It's just business, and the Canadian regulators have said: it's not our business. Meanwhile, just south of the border, regulators are putting the fear of government into every conceivable crypto-currency merchant. Congress is issuing warnings. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is exacting fees. The feds are driving services out of existence. It's so bad that Bitcoin advocates are reduced to Stockholm-like begging: 'Please regulate us as soon as possible.'" Continue reading →

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American anti-virus mogul McAfee warns Canadians about government spying

"As an anti-virus software tycoon at the head of McAfee Security, he says his early clients ranged from the CIA to the American navy and air force. 'The first six years of McAfee, 90 per cent of our income came from the government. The First Gulf War I donated $40 million worth of software to the U.S. Army,' he says. McAfee said intelligence officials were worried that encryption technology would get out of the U.S. and into the wrong hands. McAfee also says the growth of electronic currencies like Bitcoin is unstoppable, despite efforts by governments to curb their use. 'It will be everywhere and the world will have to readjust. World governments will have to readjust.'" Continue reading →

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Bitcoin Gains Credit Union Cred

"A New Jersey credit union has agreed to accept accounts transferred from a trading exchange that handles Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. The move, apparently aimed at attracting business from investors and financial institutions that trade in the alternative forms of tender, could provide them with a much needed level of legitimacy. Staff reporters discuss." Continue reading →

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The Rush to Bitcoin ASICs: Ravi Iyengar launches CoinTerra

"Coming into the ASIC market is CoinTerra, headed up by Ravi Iyengar, former CPU Lead Architect at Samsung’s Austin Research Center (SARC). Ravi’s focus at SARC was on the CPU Mid-Core, including integer execution and special purpose registers (good for Bitcoin). His history also includes helping design chips for the SGS4, as well as stints at Intel, Qualcomm and NVIDIA. At CoinTerra he is joined by Jim O’Connor, VP of Engineering with a history of SOC design and Dr. Naveed Sherwani, CEO of Open Silicon. CoinTerra has raised $1.5 million from investors to fund development costs and an initial production run. CoinTerra’s CEO was happy to speak to us and answer a few questions." Continue reading →

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Chip veterans form new startup, will sell high-end Bitcoin miner for $14,000

"On Tuesday, a new Bitcoin startup called CoinTerra announced that it raised $1.5 million in venture capital. This likely puts the company in a position to dominate the Bitcoin hardware market—assuming it can come through on its promises. Earlier this month, CoinTerra revealed the TerraMiner IV, a two terahash per second ASIC Bitcoin miner that will sell for $13,999 and is set to ship in December 2013. (An ASIC is a specialized computer designed to one specific task, in this case the goal is mining bitcoins.) By contrast, the one that Ars tested earlier this year was a five gigahash per second device made by Butterfly Labs." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChip veterans form new startup, will sell high-end Bitcoin miner for $14,000

10 Futuristic or out of the ordinary projects that accept Bitcoin

"Financing novelty projects can be a challenge when it comes to gather supporters, but Bitcoin might be a great help. In these cases, when the projects sound too outrageous for conventional financial investment, cryptocurrency steps in to change the game. Take a look at these 10 examples." Continue reading →

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