Planet SoC

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank recently published Doing Business 2009, an annual report that ranks 181 economies on the overall ease of doing business.

The rankings are based on 10 indicators of business regulation that track the time and cost to meet government requirements in starting and operating a business, trading across borders, paying taxes, and closing a business. The rankings do not reflect such areas as macroeconomic policy, quality of infrastructure, currency volatility, investor perceptions, or crime rates.

Things - Nick Farr Created a Polyalphabetic Substitution Cypher Slide Rule from Bre Pettis on Vimeo.

InventionHome announces the launch of MatchProduct.com, a unique, interactive marketplace where sellers of fully developed, innovative products and inventions can find buyers interested in wholesaling, licensing or acquiring new products.

Global Venture Challenge 2009 is an educational event designed to foster entrepreneurial spirit by engaging students, industry, government and the investment community in the discovery and development of innovative ideas. The ultimate goal is to encourage students to launch new technology-based businesses that can improve the well-being of the world. Specific areas of interest include Bioenergy, and Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energies.

The focus of this year’s event is again on energy, one of the world’s most critical issues. Graduate school teams from across the globe are being recruited to develop unique and innovative product ideas that can solve existing market needs and have the potential to become sustainable businesses.

Opening Up Education (MIT Press, 2008) argues that we must develop not only the technical capability but also the intellectual capacity for transforming tacit pedagogical knowledge into commonly usable and visible knowledge: by providing incentives for faculty to use (and contribute to) open education goods, and by looking beyond institutional boundaries to connect a variety of settings and open source entrepreneurs.

Semesters start this friday, Nov 7th. :(. So will be missing in action for the next two weeks…..
Till then,
Ctrl-Z

Through this program, Google will be offering grants valued between US$5,000 and US$100,000. These grants will be issued through an open application process - legally qualified, public charitable organizations with a compelling idea about how maps can help them work more effectively are eligible. Smaller mapping applications requiring only static data might receive US$5,000 in funding, while development of tools that enable many organizations to create maps might receive US$100,000.

Apply and submit your proposal online by December 22nd, 2008.

infoDev, in cooperation with the World Bank Group, commissioned a global best practice study on IT Parks. The study provides a synthesis of best practices and lessons learned (both from success and failure) and supports governments in developing and transition economies in designing and promoting such projects.

The National Academies have released “New Horizons in Plant Sciences for Human Health and the Environment,” a free booklet that explores the potential of the National Plant Genome Initiative — a federal multiagency project that coordinates research in plant sciences to understand and ultimately harness plants’ properties to help meet environment and health needs.

Mr. Viorel (won’t disclose the full name here) lives in Canada and is a friend of my parents. We was about to visit Romania, and asked if he could help me by phoning Lenovo Canada and ask whether they would send the customer replaceable unit to him, and he would bring it back to me when he would arrive in Romania.
I gave him the model, and serial number; he phoned, Lenovo Canada sent him the new palmrest in two days, he brought it to me, I replaced it, and voila! My ThinkPad is as good as new… unbelievable!