From the monthly archives:

September 2006

MyHeritage.com: Facial Recognition & Geneology

by Pete Abilla September 27, 2006

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 [...]

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Hyping Web 2.0: Techcrunch on Repetition

by Pete Abilla September 27, 2006

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″ [...]

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Compare & Contrast: Utah Venture Capital

by Pete Abilla September 26, 2006

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 [...]

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Black Dolls, White Dolls

by Pete Abilla September 25, 2006

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. We’ve bought books [...]

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Lean Consumption & Walk-in Clinics

by Pete Abilla September 22, 2006

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. [...]

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Information Technology at Toyota

by Pete Abilla September 20, 2006

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 [...]

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Bad Breath and Good Design

by Pete Abilla September 19, 2006

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 [...]

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TechCrunch Waffles on “Online Storage Perfection”

by Pete Abilla September 18, 2006

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 [...]

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BlackBerry & The Simple Life

by Pete Abilla September 15, 2006

Yes, I did it. I was becoming addicted to my work. You can imagine it: a trigger-finger, device-focused man, typing away while walking down the hall, while at the kids’ soccer games, in meetings, while shopping, and in any possible venue. No more. No more. I’m fighting back and I’m forcing discipline on myself. Now, [...]

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