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Sunday, 26 May 2013
10 iPhone Apps to Fill Up Your 'Fun' Folder
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Switched On: One box to rule them all
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Samsung Accidentally Places Galaxy S4 mini Image On Apps Site
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Console Showdown: Xbox One vs. PlayStation 4
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Inhabitat's Week in Green: biospheres, X-wings and energy-creating shoes
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Klipsch KMC 3 Portable Speaker Will Knock Your Socks Off
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Steve Wozniak discusses his dependency on a MacBook Pro and his affinity for transistor radios
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Apple Might Have Flashed an iWatch in Latest Ad
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Samsung ATIV Book 7 review: a high-end Ultrabook arriving just before Haswell
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Todo listo para el lanzamiento de la Soyuz TMA-09M
La TMA-09M sobre su lanzador (vía @Romain_CHARLES) - Más fotos en Expedition 36
La Soyuz TMA-09M ya está preparada en el cosmódromo de Baikonur para su lanzamiento el próximo martes 28 de mayo rumbo a la Estación Espacial Internacional.
A bordo irán Fyodor Yurchikhin, de Roscosmos, en su cuarta misión, Karen L. Nyberg, de la NASA, en su segunda misión, y Luca Parmitano, de la ESA, en su primera misión.
Los tres se incorporarán a la tripulación de la Estación como miembros de la Expedición 36 a esta, junto con Pavel Vinogradov, Aleksandr Misurkin, y Chris Cassidy, que ya están a bordo.
Más adelante, cuando Vinogradov, Misurkin y Cassidy vuelvan a Tierra, lo que está previsto para septiembre de 2013, pasarán a ser el primer contingente de la Expedición 37 hasta su vuelta, prevista para noviembre de 2013.
La TMA-09M siendo insertada en su cofia protectora (vía @AstroKarenN)
Debido a los problemas que tuvo la Progress M-19M con la antena 2–ASF-VKA del sistema de navegación KURS, que no llegó a desplegarse nunca, y teniendo en cuenta que las Progress y las Soyuz usan el mismo sistema de guiado, la de la TMA-09M fue sometida a una inspección especialmente detallada.
Esto permitió detectar la presencia de un adhesivo en el mecanismo de despliegue que no tenía que estar ahí, lo que apunta claramente a un problema de producción que habrá de ser corregido; en el caso de la TMA-09M se han tomado las medidas pertinentes para eliminarlo y asegurarse de que todo está como tiene que estar.
La TMA-09M usará el mismo tipo de trayectoria rápida que la TMA-08M, con lo que Yurchikhin, Nyberg y Parmitano llegarán a su destino en poco menos de seis horas.
El lanzamiento está previsto a las 20:31:24 UTC del martes 28 de mayo, y como es habitual se podrá seguir vía NASA TV o a través de la cuenta de Twitter de @Spaceflight101.
Pero en esta ocasión tenemos además la enorme suerte de que Daniel Marín está allí para ver el lanzamiento en directo, con lo que no sólo nos lo contará en @Eurekablog sino que ya lleva unos días dándonos envidia con lo que nos cuenta de las actividades previas.
Otra foto del traslado del cohete a primera hora ow.ly/i/2cMdq
— Daniel Marín(@Eurekablog) 26 de mayo de 2013 Se puede seguir además a Karen N. Nyberg y a Luca Parmitano a través de sus cuentas de Twitter, @AstroKarenN y @Astro_Luca. Yurchikhin, que se sepa, no tiene cuenta en Twitter. Se ve que en Roscosmos no recibieron la circular en la que se explica lo que mola.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/ciencia/todo-listo-para-lanzamiento-soyuz-tma-09m.html
Peter Molyneux's Curiosity cube is now open, contents still a mystery
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Europa Report, una película sobre la llegada del hombre a Europa (la de Júpiter)
Seis astronautas parten rumbo a Europa en una misión para intentar encontrar signos de vida en esta luna de Júpiter, aunque por lo que se ve en el trailer se lía parda y lo mismo no todos vienen de vuelta.
Según comenta Phil Plait el equipo de la película contó con ayuda de científicos del Laboratorio de Propulsión a Chorro, así que la parte científica está muy lograda; veremos si el argumento merece la pena o no.
Europa Report se estrena el 27 de junio en iTunes y en los cines el 2 de agosto. Al menos en los Estados Unidos.
Se nos acumula el trabajo películo-televisivo para los próximos meses: Almost Human, el episodio final de The IT Crowd, Gravity, El juego de Ender, Superman: el hombre de acero, Elysium, Las emisoras de números… Y seguro que me dejo alguna.
(Vía, claro, Bad Astronomy).
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/peliculas-tv/europa-report-pelicula.html
Microsoft gives students 3GB additional Skydrive storage for one year
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Júpiter, Mercurio y Venus en conjunción
Gathering Of Venus, Jupiter and Mercury on May 25, 2013 : Venus está abajo, Mercurio a la derecha y Júpiter a la izquierda- vía @EclipseMaps
Estos días, si miras al cielo hacia el noroeste un poco después de la puesta del Sol y las nubes y la contaminación lumínica te lo permiten, podrás ver tres puntos de luz que probablemente te llamarán la atención.
El más brillante de ellos es Venus, a unos 248 millones de kilómetros de la Tierra, seguido por Júpiter, a pesar de que está a unos 904 millones de kilómetros, y luego Mercurio, a unos 182 millones de kilómetros.
La posición relativa de los tres respecto a la Tierra hace que Mercurio y Venus hayan estado en conjunción, alcanzado su aproximación aparente máxima el viernes 24 de mayo, que Mercurio y Júpiter lo hagan el domingo 26 de mayo, y que Venus y Júpiter lo hagan en la noche del lunes al martes.
Durante la noche del 26 al 27 de mayo será la ocasión en la que los tres estén más juntos hasta 2021. Luego, hasta el 29 de mayo, los tres seguirán formando un trío planetario dentro de un círculo de 5 grados, algo así como la mitad del tamaño de tu puño con el brazo extendido.
Posiciones relativas de los planetas según pasan los días - vía Universe Today
A partir de entonces Mercurio y Venus seguirán bastante juntos hasta mediados de junio, aunque Júpiter ya se irá separando de ellos poco a poco hasta dejar de ser visible porque estará en conjunción con el Sol el 19 de junio de 2013.
Por supuesto esta conjunción planetaria, digan lo que digan astrólogos y magufos de cualquier pelaje, no tiene influencia alguna sobre nosotros, salvo, quizás para aquellos a los que nos gusta mirar al cielo, que procuraremos no perdérnoslo.
La observación de esta conjunción es muy fácil y se realiza a simple vista sin mayores problemas, aunque si te llevas unos prismáticos podrás disfrutarla un poco mejor.
De todos modos si te lías para encontrar los planetas, aunque con lo brillante que es Venus no deberías tener problemas, recuerda que aplicaciones como SkySafari pueden echarte una mano.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/ciencia/jupiter-mercurio-venus-en-conjuncion.html
Watch the Curiosity rover explore Mars in one minute (video)
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Anatomy Of An Undisclosed Investment Or Exit
Spend time with a VC and they’ll inevitably tell you about a startup they’ve invested in that has a “great story.” In fact, this line is repeated so often I’ve occasionally posited that VCs invest in and sell stories not companies. Likewise, read any number of articles offering entrepreneurs free and usually unsolicited advice, and the ability to tell a great story — to investors, partners, customers, employees and the media — is commonly cited as an important factor in determining a startup’s chances of success.
But, as any journalist knows, the most important part of the story is very often the part that’s been omitted. In the startup world, this is no more true than in the case of the “undisclosed” investment or exit. When publications report that company A has announced a new funding round but isn’t saying how much, or that company B has been acquired but neither party is revealing the price, have you ever wondered what is really going on?
In this post, I’ll attempt to scratch beneath the surface a little and explore the story behind the undisclosed investment or exit. This will largely be based on knowledge garnered as a journalist covering startups over a number of years but also as a fleeting entrepreneur who has raised funding and saw an undisclosed exit first hand. It will also draw on conversations with investors and founders who have been directly involved in multiple funding rounds, acquisitions and exits, all of whom agreed to be as candid as possible for the purpose of this article and on the strict condition of anonymity.
UNDISCLOSED FUNDING
Any founder will tell you that raising money is usually hard, really hard. And yet doing so not only provides a startup the capital it needs to grow, but for early-stage companies especially, it also acts as some sort of market validation where few other signals exist. But what if the size of the raise pales into insignificance when compared to a startup’s competitors? That doesn’t make for such a good story.
The single most common reason for an investment amount remaining undisclosed is that the size of the round would be viewed by the market as derisory in comparison to competitors. This is particularly common at the seed stage, and even more so outside of Silicon Valley where funding is usually a lot lower on a like-for-like basis.
The size of the round would be viewed by the market as derisory in comparison to competitors
Being dwarfed by the Valley is commonly cited as a reason to omit this part of the story. “When we’re at a disadvantage with a smaller war chest it’s not in our benefit to announce that and make it plainly known,” said one European VC. “Where these dynamics do not exist, we’ll announce the size.”
One VC cited the rudimentary and recent example of Groupon. During the group buying site’s heyday, which saw it raise north of 1 billion dollars on the road to an IPO, any company wishing to compete would have needed a large amount of capital to be taken seriously. The later they went to market, the bigger that balance sheet would have needed to be. Despite this reality, however, low barriers to entry on the tech side resulted in an attack of the Groupon-clones, meaning that if you raised money for your group buying site after 2009, you were probably a very good candidate for an undisclosed investment.
When a figure is missing from the story, there’s also a tendency for people to fill in the gaps for themselves. “Our thinking and experience is that if you don’t say, people drift toward the $1 million mark,” said the VC. “So unless you’ve raised more, there’s no reason to shatter their illusions”.
This thinking has also given rise to the ghastly practice of describing funding in such terms as a “six-figure investment”, to imply an amount just shy of a million. (Admittedly, it’s a practice I employed as an entrepreneur with limited success.) Or something even more ambiguous as a “multi-million dollar investment”. This technique is mostly used at the seed or A round and seems to have become a particularly European phenomenon where, again, funding rounds are smaller.
Another factor can be the desire by a previously successful founder to protect their personal brand. If they fail to raise a significant round of funding for their new venture they may opt to keep the amount undisclosed so as to not burst their own bubble. “You’d be surprised how tough raising anything above seed can be, even for serial folks,” said one serial entrepreneur. “Sometimes they don’t want to be perceived as small in the market relative to their profile and track record”.
With that said, an undisclosed investment is not always the result of playing a game of “my raise is bigger than your raise”. Further market dynamics are often at play, such as the perception amongst customers and potential partners who would balk at the prospect of doing business with what could be perceived as an underfunded startup. “Big retailers don’t typically make time to talk to or partner with startups,” said a VC who has been involved in a number of B2B investments. “They want well-capitalised concerns that are not going to shut down next year.”
One way to balance the need for publicity surrounding a startup’s funding with being taken seriously by potential customers and partners is to ensure that the investment amount remains undisclosed but the name of the company’s backers is touted at every available opportunity. The key takeaway from the story then becomes that the startup is VC funded, along with any noteworthy names attached to the fund, rather than how short the company’s runway is in reality.
Politics (with a small “p”) can also play a part. If a startup’s proposition and brand is pitched as non-corporate or idealistic, attracting a user base that would take umbrage if it knew the company was underpinned by Venture Capital, then it may seek minimal publicity related to funding. “It may not be well received to highlight any VC money at all even if it’s a nice chunky amount,” said a VC.
Lastly, a reason for keeping an investment amount undisclosed can be purely personal, such as where a full disclosure might inadvertently reveal too much detail about a high net-worth individual’s own finances. “Angels generally don’t want the amounts they invest to be known as most are private individuals and don’t want their wealth in terms of amount made public,” said an early-stage investor. This can also extend to an individual choosing to hide their name from an investment entirely, or agreeing to disclose their involvement only in aggregate as part of a consortium of investors.
UNDISCLOSED EXIT
If an undisclosed funding round makes for a dull opening chapter, an undisclosed exit is often an unsatisfactory end to the story not only for those on the outside looking in but also the company being bought or the company doing the acquiring. Once again, the reason for an undisclosed exit largely comes down to price and how this will be perceived by the market.
An undisclosed exit amount is more often the result of stalemate between the three main parties involved: the company exiting, its backers, and the company making the acquisition. As one VC put it, “ironically, the motivations for the acquirer and the investors of the acquired company are at direct odds”.
If the price is high, both the founders and the company’s investors will want to make it public. “We want people to think the sale price was as high as possible because we want people thinking we made a killing,” said one VC. In contrast, the acquirer might not want to divulge how much they paid, “lest they are laughed at for over-paying”.
Ironically, the motivations for the acquirer and the investors of the acquired company are at direct odds
Conversely, if the exit price is on the low side, the company being sold, and certainly its backers, will insist on non disclosure so as to maintain the perception of a success. As one VC said: “Unless the investors have made money off the deal, they’re not going to advertise the amount of the exit”.
The exception here is a fire sale where it’s usually in the interest of all parties to keep the financial details undisclosed. The acquirer doesn’t want it to be known how much they paid for the assets of a failed company, which may include its user base and/or technology, information that is market sensitive. Likewise, the company being bought and its investors would rather not highlight how poor an investment it turned out to be.
However, this lack of transparency doesn’t always chime well with the wider community. “If I am going to invest in a fund then I want to know the performance of that fund,” said an investor. “Of course managers of a fund who are taking a percentage may not want others to know if they are not doing as well as they wish to make out”.
Sometimes, of course, the startup’s founders and their investors are at odds over what actually constitutes a successful or unsuccessful exit. For a first time founder, any kind of exit could be deemed a success, including an acqui-hire, but in these situations the VCs usually have the deciding vote if they wish to keep the sale price undisclosed.
It’s also worth remembering that even when an exit is disclosed, the price made public is invariably inflated, including earnouts and/or simply being rounded up (or out and out made up). “Maybe I’ve just seen too much but at this stage unless it’s by a public company which actually discloses the number in a filing, I’m inclined to be rather sceptical of what’s reported,” cautioned an entrepreneur who has been privy to multiple exits and acquisitions.
In conclusion, to fully understand the motivation for an undisclosed investment or exit and the conundrum it presents, I’ll leave you with the words of one seasoned entrepreneur-turned-investor who perhaps summed it up best: “The people helped by disclosure and a general understanding of the market are not those doing the disclosing. Ultimately all of us in the market for funding startups or receiving funding would benefit from open disclosure by everyone, but individuals and companies often prefer privacy over the group benefit.”
via TechCrunch » Startups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techcrunch/startups/~3/o6jqg8-T_Z8/
Phoenix Mars Lander, cinco años después
El 25 de mayo de 2008 la sonda Phoenix de la NASA se convertía en el primer vehículo espacial en aterrizar en una de las zonas polares de Marte, en concreto en el ártico marciano.
Su objetivo era averiguar si, como los científicos sospechaban, había hielo de agua bajo la superficie del planeta en esa zona y si el suelo podría, de alguna forma, servir o haber servido como soporte para alguna forma de vida.
La Phoenix cumplió con creces los dos objetivos de su misión, e incluso duró un par de meses más de los 90 soles previstos, con una última comunicación con la Tierra el 2 de noviembre de 2008 antes de que la sonda dejara de funcionar a causa de las bajas temperaturas que trajo consigo la llegada del invierno en Marte, aunque la misión no fue dada por finalizada oficialmente hasta el 12 de mayo de 2010 cuando ya fue obvio que la sonda no había sobrevivido al invierno.
Pero con todo para mi el mayor éxito de esta misión fue, en mi opinión, sacar a la luz el enorme potencial de Twitter como herramienta para la divulgación científica, y todo un poco de casualidad tras la decisión de Veronica McGregor, @VeronicaMcG, la responsable de comunicaciones de la misión, de crear una cuenta en Twitter para la sonda:
Less than 20 days till I land on Mars!
— MarsPhoenix (@MarsPhoenix) 8 de mayo de 2008 Esto se le ocurrió tras darse cuenta de que la Phoenix iba a aterrizar durante el fin de semana del Día de los Caídos, con lo que pensó probablemente apenas conseguiría difusión en los medios de toda la vida, así que intentó buscarse ella misma la forma de dar a conocer la misión.
La cuenta de la Phoenix empezó un poco tímidamente, pero tras aparecer en sitios como Reddit, Boing Boing o similares su número de seguidores comenzó a crecer y aún hoy, años después del fin de la misión tiene unos 260.000.
Tras el éxito de @MarsPhoenix cada vez más misiones, astronautas, e instituciones científicas de todo tipo se fueron dando cuenta del enorme potencial de Twitter, y hoy es casi de rigor que tengan cuenta en Twitter, aunque no todo el mundo sabe ser lo suficientemente natural y cercano al usarlo, las dos claves para que este tipo de comunicaciones a través de las redes sociales funcionen.
Claro que ahí Chris Hadfield ha dejado el listón muy alto, pues desde la Estación Espacial Internacional ha impresionado a propios y extraños con su uso de Twitter y las redes sociales para acercar la exploración espacial a un gran número de personas de una forma que hacía mucho que no pasaba.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/ciencia/phoenix-mars-lander-cinco-anos-despues.html
Fujitsu revamps E-series Lifebooks, gives Ivy Bridge one last hurrah
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Evernote Windows Phone app now lets you pin tool tiles, gets other UI tweaks
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Arrested Development season four is ready for viewing on Netflix
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Sillas voladoras a 120 metros de altura: la torre SkyScreamer de Texas
Si te dan miedo las alturas no mires esto.
La torre SkyScreamer es una es una atracción que acaban de inaugurar en uno de los parques de atracciones Six Flags (en Texas, Estados Unidos).
Si conoces el Star Flyer del Parque de Atracciones de Madrid, es esa gran torre central en la que las sillas voladoras suben y bajan lentamente mientras giran dando vueltas y vueltas – a una altura no apta para gente impresionable.
La nueva SkyScreamer es igual, solo que en vez de 80 metros de altura llega a los 120 metros de altura y en vez de girar a 45 km/h alcanza casi los 70 km/h. Oh, oh.
via Microsiervos http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/mundoreal/skyscreamer-sillas-voladoras.html
Scientists find that graphene can be used to build lasers
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NASA creates the first topographic map of Titan, Saturn's largest moon
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Ask Engadget: best candybar phone?
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