A regular feature of the IoT forum has been the Ones to Watch showcase. This is a competition focused on bringing up start businesses with interesting contributions to the IoT field to our conference for free.
A long time ago (before the last bubble burst), Red Herring was an interesting magazine about technology. That was a long time ago.
My MP, is currently in parliament trying to pass the bill to put 0.7% of GDP to work supporting less developed countries.
If there are any microbusinesses in the Cambridge area that want to discuss this with their MP, Julian Huppert, please contact me via email.
He is one of the best MPs I know – personally, I never vote for political parties, I vote for the person that I believe will represent the interests of their constituents and the country as a whole rather than toe the party line about X for the sake of not screwing up their chances of losing power in the next election so, Julian’s my man. Smart, hardworking, technical – he tweets XKCD.
If you don’t know about VATMOSS but you want to support an entrepreneurial economy. You should read and sign this petition if you agree.
If you don’t know about VATMOSS and want to get a sense of why entrepreneurs, particularly small software businesses and side project/home businesses, think this is a very, very dumb idea, in a very measured way. Read this by Rachel Andrew, pretty much a perfect example of a smart, savvy, thoughtful, ‘side-business’ entrepreneur.
Sign this petition if you agree.
If you don’t know about VATMOSS and you are a little bit uncomfortable with the notion that huge companies like Amazon with an army of accountants at their beck and call will probably end up benefiting the money movers and the offshore company structures they create. It is the platforms like Amazon that ironically will end up benefiting from this as they will be the only way that a micro business can possibly navigate the complexities and vagaries of VAT law in different EU Countries and stay within the law, thus forcing microbusinesses to share their revenue with Amazon who seem to make lots of money without making a profit so they don’t need to pay taxes.
That could have been me if I was a lot more clever. I feel for the guy. Matt Taylor is the English guy with the tattoos and bright shirts who is one of the key people behind the comet landing programme. He is a pretty amazing guy and I would put money on him being sensitive, thoughtful, respectful of all people, men or women, in real life.
So after landing a fridge on a comet and getting on the TV, his choice of shirt, one showing ‘naked ladies’ is putting women off science. He is clearly gutted and makes a tearful apology on TV before going on to answer some science questions.
My daughter, active feminist, currently shouting at One Direction’s stupid song on the TV because they are squawking ‘She *belongs* to me’, thought the shirt was cool.
I hope that when Matt gets back to Blighty, he might consider coming and talking about his work with my daughter’s school, they would welcome him with open arms. They really would.
The best business primer you will see this week. A brilliant history lesson in the evolution of games business models.
Everything you need to know about Free Games and the Business Models that drive them from South Park.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS4VRbsjZrQ
So, it turns out that writing a blogpost about recruiting for The BLN is quite hard. Especially if you’re trying to be original.
Probably the most requested video from IoT14: Andy Stanford Clark doing a superb job of demonstrating Node-Red. For a few minutes I think everyone in the audience, even the marketeers, felt they could (and should) create their own IoT app. Some of them went on to do just that.
Making an iPad. A look inside a Foxconn factory in China. Workers start by earning $14 a day and they are still being replaced by machines.