Israeli startup, MyHeritage.com, has a really interesting facial recognition technology that is part of their Geneology, Family History, and Family Tree suite of products. Today, I decided to try it out to see how well it worked.

First, I uploaded a picture of a toilet. The MyHeritage software immediately recognized that it wasn’t a human face and it told me so; I then uploaded a picture of a Garbage Pail Kid — Barfin’ Marvin — it didn’t recognize it as a human face either. Lastly, I tried a basketball to see if the MyHeritage software would recognize the basketball as a bald man, but, no, it didn’t recognize it as a human face. Lastly, I tried a creepy picture of a doll. Below is the result:

Keep Reading [484 words, 3 images & 1:56 Average Reading Time]

I’ve wanted to find a way that organizes and renders in a meaningful way what people talk about. Blogs, for example, are a fascinating word-of-mouth tool, but such unstructured data isn’t very easy to work with. So, I began creating something that will help me better understand what blogs talk about.

The phrase “Web 2.0″ is a nebulous term, that not even O’reilly could define well. Yet, it’s now in our vocabulary: it’s difficult to define, yet we use the term and somehow or rather, people know what each other is talking about. If Ludwig Wittgenstein were alive today, he would have a hayday with this: rather than “things of which we do not speak”, the phrase “web 2.0″ becomes “the thing of which we speak much of yet do not know.”

Keep Reading [388 words, 1 image & 1:33 Average Reading Time]

Curious about the local venture capital market in Utah, I decided to learn more about the two firms that I know a little about: Wasatch Venture Fund and VSpring Capital — I know some of the guys that work there.

Wasatch Venture Fund

For Wastach Venture Fund, below is a picture of where their investment money is going, based on the portfolio companies listed on their site:

Wasatch Venture Fund’s investments appear to be concentrated in the West, with an anomaly in Minnesota. For Utah-specific investments, here is that picture:

Keep Reading [388 words, 6 images & 1:33 Average Reading Time]

Since my wife and I will be adopting an African American baby, she and I have been learning about adoption, the “primal grieving” that some adoptees go through, and also about transracial issues, since I’m Filipino, my wife is White, and our kids are going to be all sorts of beautiful colors.

Keep Reading [265 words, 0 images & 1:04 Average Reading Time]

Wal-Mart and other retailers are opening clinics to capture the walk-in market. Bloomberg reports:

To capture walk-in patients who will buy drugs and other merchandise, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Duane Reade Holdings Inc., CVS Corp. and Walgreen Co. are opening clinics mostly run by nurse practitioners and physician assistants who treat everyday ailments and write prescriptions. Executives say at least 5,000 U.S. outlets will open in the next few years, even as doctor groups express concern over the quality of patient care.

Keep Reading [655 words, 2 images & 2:37 Average Reading Time]

Toyota is all about the customer. We hear a lot — and I’ve written a lot on this blog — about the Toyota Production System, anglicized in the United States as Lean, but we haven’t known much about the role of Information Technology at Toyota.

Baseline Magazine has a great article on Toyota; specifically, the role of technology at Toyota:

And behind TPS is information technology—supporting and enabling the business processes that help Toyota eliminate waste, operate with virtually no inventory and continually improve production.

Keep Reading [1114 words, 1 image & 4:27 Average Reading Time]

I love good design — creative and design excellence is a strong personal interest of mine. I love when things are easy to understand, aesthetically pleasing, and cognitively ordered. I am especially impressed with good industrial design, demonstrated by Apple and the Dyson Vacuum. Site Usability and Excellence in Visual Display of Information is also a strong interest of mine.

Keep Reading [676 words, 1 image & 2:42 Average Reading Time]

On December 28, 2005, Arrington of Techcrunch titled his posting on OmniDrive the following: “Omnidrive: Online Storage Perfection.”

On September 17, 2006, Arrington of Techcrunch waffles and calls Carbonite “the closest to perfection we’ve seen so far.”

So, Mike, which is more perfect?

I share more about Mike’s inconsistencies in this interview with Mozy. Also in that article, I explain the key differences between what Mike is calling “Online Backup” versus “Remote Backup” — there is a big difference that Mike Arrington does not explicate.

Permanent link to this post [107 words, 2 images]