Online mapping systems are one of the webs most useful applications (if we remove the browser and email from contention.) Maps have continued to evolve providing directions first and then satellite imagery.

Now maps are getting mashed up to provide more than just directions and locations. More and more online sites are essentially overlaying the functionality of a mind map with a real geographical map or satellite image. These mashups of maps is excellent for a variety of uses whether or not a person is hiking off through the woods and needs some milestones identified along the way or even if they are going out of town to a convention and want to identify the convention center, hotels, meeting rooms, restaraunts and other attractions.
Putting the information relating to pinpointed items on a map is an excellent way to provide a lot of information in a rapid manner.

I’m working on just such a map myself for my local community. My mashup will feature a pinpoint for each home in our subdivision with a listing of the vehicles that reside there with make, model and license plate. We’ve experienced a bit of a crime spree recently in the Atlanta area and the local police are advising citizens to phone in and report cars that aren’t from the neighborhood.

These days however fewer people know their neighbors let alone all the cars in the neighborhood. But arming a neighborhood watch with a map listing the cars identified with a home can readily help people identify the residents from the miscreants that might be up to no good.

You can try it yourself - Make a Map Mashups and see some great examples of what can be done and the new tools available moving beyond Google Maps.

Technorati Tags: map mash ups, online map tools, online map software, neighborhood watch

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Dell and Apple coming off of their massive laptop battery recall are receiving the type of bad press that hurts their customers first.

The Virgin Airlines (think that Branson guy in the hot air balloon) has made the connection that a piping hot battery that catches on fire would actually be a type of flamable material. They are not preventing people from taking this flamable material with them on the plane.

However, they are preventing people from putting it close to the device that enables the flame out, that is the travellers laptop.

Travelers owning Apple and Dell laptops are being required to separate their potentially dangerous batteries from their laptops and keep them wrapped up and separate.

There does not seem to be any work to distinguish whether or not the batteries are actually made by Sony, the company that provided several million batteries in total to Dell and Apple.

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I’ve come to follow a venture capital blog written by Dan Rua, a managing partner of Inflexion Partners of Florida.

Dan’s blog is definitely not your typical dry white paper format VC blog. I say this from the insider perspective of having a double major in Finance and Accounting and a Master’s in International Tax law and working with multiple firms on many different projects over the last 6 years. His VC fund blog focuses produces a parity of technology company success ingredients with venture capital fund wisdom.

His focus is on the Southeastern United States and it seems to be primarily driven towards small to medium sized companies looking to vector out of orbit into something extra special.

Having worked with VC groups in the past, I know from experience that a good VC partner is not a person that is one sided in their perspective or business knowledge. They can typically walk through a project, a product design, spot the holes in a forecast or trouble shoot the actual problem in last quarter’s Profit and Loss statement before lunch without breaking a sweat.

A good Venture capitalist has to be well rounded in many business functions and in many disciplines in addition to finance or else someone will pull the wool over their eyes and that’s not acceptable in the VC world. Knowing and quantifying the risk is the battle.

Its been my experience therefore that if a small to medium sized technology company wants to excite their company to that next valence, they have to be completely open and honest with they VC team. Everyone needs to talk a good game on the street, but it’s imperative to be honest with yourself and your investors. Short of this and the trust vanishes, and good relationships can devolve. Get the insights and perspective from your VC partners and they can typically help you identify where you need to be and when in order to make things a success.

Setting an honest baseline, honest milestones and tracking through towards them with regular planning and adjustments is about forty percent of what it takes to be a good company. The other sixty percent is split into two parts. twenty percent is a great idea and the other forty percent is hard, nose to the grind stone work leveraging every inch of technology and outsourced partnerships to get the maxim output from your entire ecosystem of organizations.

Start honest, build a solid foundation of a relationship, and nurture that relationship along with transparency and hard work and your company will do well if you’ve got a decent idea.

Technorati Tags: venture capital, VC, transparency, technology company

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Microsoft officially unveiled the Zune a contender to potentially take on the iPod. Much information and images had been linked on the Zune device over the last few months. Key to the official release today, Microsoft described an aspect of its new Zune store for music downloads and how the WiFi wireless connectivity will play an important role in differentiating the product from the iPod.

1. The Zune can transfer music files from one Zune device to another
2. Once a Zune device receives a music file from another device, the user can listen to that music file for a limited number of instances before the file is locked out. The receiving Zune can play the file a maximum of 3 times over a 3 day period.
3. Then the receiving Zune owner can download and purchase that song title wirelessly from their device, unlocking the file for continued playback in the future.
4. It comes with a 30GB hard drive (It would not be surprising for upgrades to larger drives to follow next seasons).
5. The device will interact with the Xbox 360live supporting video playback.
6. It even has an FM tuner.
7. The best part about the Zune is that it will be available this Christmas and is reported to retail for around $300.

Microsoft had been rumored to be working on a plan where iTunes owned by consumers might be converted into Zune Tunes or Zunes. This deal has not yet materialized, but might be something to keep an eye out as the product rolls out, even if its a limited time Christmas season offer. The Zune will come in White, Black and brown.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Zune, Zune MP3 Player, Zune Wireless Player, Zunes, Zune Tunes

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Many a gadget hound and software geek and work aholic in general won’t hesitate to throw a few dollars at a software program or simple tool to help them work faster.

We all want to get more done with less, because that is what it takes to survive in the modern age.

Sometimes we overlook the simple things that help us work better, think more clearly and come up with that flash of an idea that incisively cuts to the heart of a matter and solves a problem. The simple thing that we overlook is our posture (mental note, sit up straight while I write this article).

Good posture promotes better circulation throughout your body and your brain. Many of us know this and we only need gentle reminders to get back into the good habit (sit up straight).

We don’t always realize however that when we don’t sit up straight that this increases the potential that we will suffer from injury or malingering pain. Bad posture is a known contributing factor in most carpal tunnel problems(mental note, keep hands and arms bent at natural angles without stressing my wrists). Similarlly, bad posture is simply and almost obviously bad for your back. It can promote back pains and cramps and if you suffer from back problems already it can make them much worse.

When you have a pain in the back or a pain in the neck it makes work a pain in the butt. If you sit up straight, these issues can be alleviated. However, most chairs are not really designed to continually remind you to sit up straight (mental note, sit up straight).

Like many people, I have one of those high backed leather chairs that were oh too popular at the local office superstore. They look great, they look expensive, they can even be well padded and provide lumbar support. However, they encourage you to sit back instead of forward. How can you practice a good offense in your work and keep your self upright and motivated to get things done when you are resting on your haunches.

A kneeler chair can improve your situation for all of these areas.

A kneeler chair encourages your body to sit forward where you are engaging your work. It tilts your hips forward just a bit, which straightens your back promoting a classic S shaped spine alignment that is optimal for your health an body. This also removes weight and pressure off of of a few vertebrae that are probably getting overworked in a classic high backed chair and spreads the load evenly across your frame.

Putting your back, your spine, the protective casing that holds your nervous system, or in techno speak your network, enables your central processing center to focus on the real issues and challenges of the day and not the self induced problems and pains that could be avoided.

Technorati Tags: kneeler chair, s shaped spine, posture, ergonomics

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