Researchers from the University of Nottingham and from the Lashkarev Institute of Semiconductor Physics in the Ukraine, have produced a new type of acoustic laser device called a Saser. It’s a sonic equivalent to the laser and produces an intense beam of uniform sound waves on a nano scale. In addition to having the paper on their research published in the Physics Journal, the team has also won a grant of £636,000 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to develop Saser technology over the next four years. For more details.
Archive for the ‘entrepreneurs’ Category
The latest inovation in lasers, “Sasers”, coming with the help of Ukraine!
Friday, July 10th, 2009Can you do Agile development with an Outsourced Team?
Sunday, May 31st, 2009The quick answer is of course yes! Without really thinking about it we can answer this way because anything is possible, you just have to determine if it makes economic or strategic sense to do it.
Over the next few weeks I want to explore this question further, but before I get in to that I want to pose another question regarding Agile.
According to the Agile Manifesto: Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
So to me this brings up a couple of questions:
1. Taking this principle in to account, are you still considered to be doing “Agile” development if right before the iteration is due new changes are requested thus pushing back the release date again? If you only release to production once every 6 or so months can you still be doing Agile development?
2. In that same vein, if you request to put off a change request until the next iteration, are you being “un-Agile”?
Another reminder that it doesn’t matter where the person is located in the same country as you or in another country
Friday, May 1st, 2009Short article from CIO.com, “IT Director Pleads Guilty to Deleting Organ Donation Records”, is another reminder that it doesn’t matter where the IT person is located, they could be located in your office, down the street or at the other side of the world, and still be capable of doing something to your data. Need to have a process in place, especially when terminating someone to shut down all access, but as well to periodically monitor for all access points for “unusual” activity.
Softjourn sponsorship of events for Start-ups via Right Hand Partners
Saturday, October 18th, 2008Softjourn is proud to be sponsoring the next Visibility Conference organized by Right Hand Partners, and to be held on Friday November 7th. If you are looking for financing and looking for a better way to talk with Venture Capitalists about your product, Right Hand Partner’s Visibility Conference may be the way to do it. MORE INFORMATION
Gallery of Funds Event – If you are an entrepreneur and wish to find out more about what a Venture Capitalist really thinks, the best thing to do is ask them. At the next Gallery of Funds Event sponsored by Softjourn, you will be able to do that. Tom Dennedy, GP at Artiman Ventures and Brendon Kim, GP at Altos Ventures, both seed stage funds will be answering your questions. MORE INFO
Second Generation Outsourcing
Saturday, September 13th, 2008There has been alot made of what is called “Second Generation Outsourcing”. For purposes of this discussion, I will use the definition set by the vendor which claims to have pioneered “Second Generation Outsourcing (SGO)”, Anantara Solutions.
In look at how they define “Second Generation Outsourcing”; combining business consulting and IT services. I would like to just ask the question, “How does this differ from the services that for example, IBM, has been providing for years? They used a huge network of specialized vendors to assist in providing services to their clients all of the world. Is this SGO model really any different?
Best Practice #9 “Be flexible when offshoring!”
Monday, June 30th, 2008This is my favorite offshoring Best Practice. Be Flexible!
When will you find the need to be flexible? During all of the times that I mentioned in the previous 8 Best Offshoring Practices. You will have to be flexible with the times of day you work, with the type of work you do offshore versus on-shore, with the type of communication methodologies you will have to be flexible (plus have a few options prepared in case the first one falls through).
In the end working offshore should not mean so many differences that the practice of completing a software development project is unrecognizable. Much of the process will be familiar to you; at first it may seem just not as comfortable due to the different times of day you find yourself working, or the means you are using to communicate (web conference tool) versus face-to-face, etc. But just like anything else, the more you do it, and that means every day, the more used to it you become and the more flexible you are the more you will find the method that works right for you, for your projects and for your company.
Softjourn supporting Entrepreneurs and Startups!
Saturday, June 14th, 2008On June 20th, in Mountain View, California, Softjourn will be sponsoring the next Visibility Conference hosted by Righthand Partners and taking place at the offices of Fenwick & West LLP, 801 California Street.
The event begins at 8:00AM and continues until 2:00PM. Righthand Partners has selected seed and early stage (Series A, B, C, & Restart) companies who will each give a 10-minute presentation, and receive 10 minutes of feedback and questions from investors sitting in the audience. Usually there are more than 20 VC’s in attendance. For more information go to the Right Hand Partners site:
Softjourn is very pleased to be sponsoring this event and supporting entrepreneurs and Startups and wishes all presenters the best of luck!