1. carton
2. pita o tiras finas de lazo
3. silicon
4. pintura
5. tijera

• en el corton pones tus pies y los dibujas dos veces osea dos izquierdos y dos derechos .
• con la pita la haces en siete yardas ,luego las haces trensadas.
• cuando esten los pies cortados ves si los dos izquierdos o los dos derechos son iguales.
• cuando tengas la trensada ,los pies los vas a unir como la suela y vas a poner la tresada haci como una sandalia y hay tu vas a saber como.
• luego cuando termines la pintas al gusto.

esto ha sido mi creatividad .

Sumber : http://www.sinarharapan.co.id/berita/0706/23/eko08.html

Rounding out the finest five in order were Washington, D.C.; San Jose/Silicon Valley, Boston, and Dallas-Fort Worth. New York had 316,500 high-tech jobs, while Silicon Valley had 225,300, according to the AeA.

The survey looked at trade throughout 2006; it was the first city-level account created by the AeA since 2000, before the tech bubble burst. Silicon Valley does have the highest density of high-tech workers, with 28.6% of uncommunicative sector jobs in the high-tech field.

As a much larger metro stretch with a more diverse set of industries, New York does not even make the top five. (The AeA defines a "high-tech" career as being in one of 49 categories culled from the standardized North American Industrial Classification System that incorporate creating high-tech products or services.) If it’s profit you’re after, the Valley is the best place to find the highest-paying high-tech jobs, with salaries averaging $144,800. Seattle, bevy five on the salary list, pays an average of $96,197, while New York–not unerringly the cheapest place to live–pays its high-tech workers $91,451.

Coming in at the bottom of the tech-salary caking is San Juan, Puerto Rico. High-tech workers there make just $38,422 on average. Not every urban area has the same types of high-tech jobs. Silicon Valley leads in semiconductor manufacturing, while Seattle is the software publishing capital. Computer organized whole design is Washington, D.C.’s purview.

And New York has the highest concentration of Internet services jobs. But all is not sunny in high-tech land. The put out warns that the U.S. is in danger of losing its high-tech move due to the federal government’s policy not to grant visas or green cards to many foreign students studying here, resulting in a "tremendous loads of unfilled jobs," said Christopher Hansen, AeA’s president and head executive officer, in an interview Monday. At the same time, the U.S. enlightening system is not producing a sufficient number of graduates to fill those slots.

"Our celebrated schools are not generating the kinds of people who can go into engineering and math and compete," Mr. Hansen said. The follow-up is that many high-tech companies are forced to relocate their operations abroad, where they can find the skilled serve they need. Mr. Hansen said that allowing foreigners to work in the high-tech persistence here would only generate more jobs.

His proof: eBay, Google, Intel, Sun, and Yahoo have either a come to grief or co-founder who was not American-born.

Video:

Estimation post: click

cái rì đây??? ngày nay silicon không chỉ xâm nhập vào zú, mũi… mà còn được chế biến thành những thú chơi độc đáo mà giới Zân chơi trời tây đang thịnh hành. Kiểu này 9x nhà mình chắc cũng sắp zu nhập đến nơi roài. Hồi sau sẽ rõ.

Xem chi tiết

Photovoltaics are pretty hot right now, and are becoming even more accessible to the world at large.  I'm waiting for this company to offer an IPO* ("ANY DAY NOW, PLEASE?!"- *pipe dream) on their innovative shift away from the silicon-based photovoltaics toward a more malleable sheeting of solar-collectors. Check out the video below, which discusses Pop-Sci's Best of Green Tech award winner from 2007.  Popular Science also provides an animated explanation of the process here.

This guy has been using solar sheets for homes and installing them:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYJe12X6T50]

I know that there are a number of people out there who are truly interested in the future of Solar Energy.  While, the first photovoltaic cell was actually constructed as far back as 1883 by Charles Fritts for a miminal amount of energy output, now the technology has advanced so far that we are able to charge our cell phones and iPods with solar chargers!

Solar power is intriguing because it is such a versatile tool.  Its usage does not just apply to electricity, but also to heat, plant-growth, and animal life as well.  The power of the sun stirs the imagination in a number of ways, although the practicality of utilizing solar power greatly is still somewhat inefficient in terms of a standard cost-benefit analysis.  Nonetheless, it is exciting-

Solar ponds, in particular seem to hold potential for alternative uses in regard to heat.  It would be interesting to see large architectural uses of solid, but clear, and hollowed out columns filled with the salt-water mixture in a home, for example.  Or, perhaps there could be magnification of sunlight which would be amplified and collected high above a home and transmitted through a non-transparent conduit into a bath of salt and water below a home in order to heat its flooring.

But day-dreams aside, there is also a good deal of potential in just making oneself knowledgeable about the use of solar energy on a more practical, everyday level.

I had the good luck of finding a few simple resources out there that really show that functional usage of solar power need not be so separate from our everyday lives.  As a matter of fact, just by including some of these projects into your existence, it could symbolize a significant shift in America, overall, that we are willing to make the effort to more away from fossil fuels and closer to alternative energy resources:

This, is a "Homemade Sun Jar." I initially fell in love with it when I saw an article in Gizmodo, with a number of them together in a photograph.  The advertised company's (Brando) version would cost $45. 

There is a very thorough description of how to create your own at NOTMARTHA.ORG, a very cute little online magazine.  Another example of a "sun catcher" came from RAINY DAY MAGAZINE (June 25, 2007) , which also has a lot of hands-on projects which aren't too hard.  In essence, I suggest you go out, confiscate someone's path-way solar light, and DIY this thing up.

However, should you decide that thievery is not for you, these are less costly alternatives available to create essentially the same object.

I, however, will be considering cultivating this instead for my home:

These are the instructions for making your VERY OWN bioluminescent algae!

A world of good,(and counting!)

A Nonymous.

The Mooncup Reusable Menstrual Cup is an alternative to tampons (shown on the left). It's a medical-grade silicon cup designed to collect menstrual fluid rather than absorbing it like a tampon.

The Mooncup is reuseable, so you only need to buy one.

Now, we can all work out that helps with landfill 'n' stuff, so eco-benefits abound, but did you know that tampons are taxed as if they are a luxury item? Bread - for instance - is considered a staple so is therefore free of taxation. That's OK. And luxury goods are taxed. That's OK too - up to a point.

But tampons? luxury? It doesn't sound right.

The Moon cup will save you money every month because of its clever design - but SO WHAT! unless it makes your life easier. Now, I have no idea whether it would be good, bad, or indifferent. But These women and these women think it's OK. So I figured it'd be OK to write about - if only to highlight that it exists, not to give opinion on whether it should be used: You can do that.

Is the Moon cup a good idea?

Calls from Governor Culver to rebuild focused on mobilizing federal money and emphasizing safety. Excellent, that will make our work easier! We can help, lending the vision for building a better world and the energy to put ourselves in the places to make a difference. So much of the work we need to do is literally rebuilding the country to be safer, healthier and more ecologically responsible. Obviously 500 year storms shouldn't be necessary to motivate us to reconsider how communities are built, but we want to be sure that what replaces destroyed blocks in Ceder Rapids is climate and people friendly.

In Other News:

First Solar is scaling up production of its printed photo-voltaic cells, which sell for $2.40/watt, edging closer to the mythic $1/watt where the industry believes solar becomes cheaper than coal. The company is moving to a new production facility near Tuscon, AZ big enough to produce 40 megawatts of PV per year. link

more clean energy news after the fold...

While the US is a world leader in research and development, we're generally weak at scaling up production. A German firm, Q-Cells, is building a huge solar production facility just south of the Mexican border, taking advantage of free trade laws and generating a projected 3,500 of green jobs. link

Producing solar requires polysilicon, a mineral processed from sand and rock. "Solar cell makers paid US$25 per kilogram for solar-grade polysilicon five years ago but the price recently reached US$500 in the spot market," according to Digitimes. Yikes! What does that mean for the future? "Based on public announcements, it appears polysilicon supply will increase by 35% in 2008. This may provide adequate supply of silicon feedstock to allow an 80% growth in the solar industry as well as continued steady growth in silicon for electronics." Said Hemlock Semiconductor CEO. Expect strong growth in solar, but even at 35% it will be several years before significant percentages of US roofs to have panels. link

Lastly, on a different note, almost 600,000 people have signed a petition for "Congress to act immediately to lower gasoline prices (and diesel and other fuel prices)* by authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries." There are other 'solutions' out there to the energy crisis. They won't work, of course, but when has that stopped large numbers of people from trying something? link

The Power Vote pledge is up to 1,763, so.... lets get to work!

Faktor pertama adalah kreatifitas dalam berinovasi. Di Lembah silikon tersebut terdapat sebuah universitas bernama Stanford University yang merupakan salah satu universitas terbesar didunia. Dari universitas tersebut banyak lahir perusahaan-perusahaan IT kelas dunia yang mampu merajai dunia IT. Mulai dari SUN Microsystem sampai dengan yang paling gress yaitu Google. Di Stanford, banyak sekali riset-riset yang merangsang inovasi teknologi tinggi. Kampus tersebut sangat produktif dalam menghasilkan produk-produk IT. Mahasiswa Stanford bisa dengan mudah menyalurkan berbagai ide inovatifnya untuk diimplementasikan secara nyata.

Faktor kedua adalah entreprenurship. Tanpa faktor ini, berbagai macam ide inovasi yang keluar dari elemen kampus tidak akan bisa berkembang. Tanpa faktor ini, semua kreasi tersebut hanya akan menjadi tumpukan laporan-laporan riset yang tidak terimplementasikan ke publik. Di lembah ini, terdapat begitu banyak capital venture dan angel investor yang berani mengeluarkan sejumlah besar uang uang untuk membiayai riset kreatif dari orang-orang di stanford. Salah satu capital venture yang sangat terkenal adalah sequoia capital. Perusahaan ini merupakan perusahaan yang telah membidani tumbuh kembangnya perusahaan-perusahaan IT seperti Yahoo, Google, Apple dsb (list lebih lengkap disini). Para angel investor di silicon valley bersedia mengambil resiko bersama sang kreator inovasi. Mereka bersedia membukakan peluang yang sangat besar untuk orang-orang yang punya ide inovatif. Mereka akan terus membantu menggiring perusahaan didikannya supaya bisa maju melesat dengan cepat. Dengan dukungan dari para capital venture inilah, IT entrepreneur di silicon valley dapat berkembang dengan mudah. Para inventor yang selama ini berkutat dikampus bisa melangkah sedikit keluar wilayah kampus untuk mencari dana, mendapat dukungan dan mengimplementasikan idenya.

Jika kita membandingkan kondisi tersebut dengan kondisi Indonesia, maka kita bisa menganalisis bagaimana sebenarnya langkah yang tepat untuk membuat model silicon valley di Indonesia. Menurut saya di Indonesia, faktor pertama yaitu kreatifitas inovasi sebenarnya sudah dimiliki. Saya sangat yakin bahwa sebenarnya SDM IT di Indonesia itu mempunyai kualitas yang sangat tinggi (coba baca ini: harry.sufehmi.com - hacker Indonesia). Namun sayangnya, potensi besar dari SDM IT di Indonesia itu tidak terberdayakan sehingga banyak SDM IT Indonesia yang salah jalur. Ada yang memanfaatkan kepintarannya melalui jalur hitam (cracking, fraud dsb) dan ada juga yang akhirnya lebih tertarik untuk bekerja keluar negeri dan menyerahkan kecerdasan yang dimilikinya untuk perusahaan-perusahaan IT yang sudah besar seperti Microsoft, Oracle, Sun dsb. Hacker-hacker di Indonesia bisa dibilang termasuk hacker berkualitas.  Disamping itu, banyak pula orang Indonesia yang bekerja di silicon valley. Belum lagi kalau saya melihat kondisi dikampus saya, fasilkom UI. Beberapa waktu yang lalu, mahasiswa tingkat pertama dikampus saya diberi tugas mata kuliah DPBO (Dasar Pemrograman berorientasi objek) untuk membuat game. Mereka diberi kebebasan untuk membuat game apapun. Dan hasilnya terlihat sangat mengesankan. hasil tugas mereka bisa dibilang outstanding. Itu membuktikan bahwa sebenarnya mereka memiliki potensi yang sangat besar. Mereka memiliki kemampuan yang sangat tinggi. Asal potensi tersebut bisa diarahkan dengan baik, maka saya yakin IT di Indonesia dapat berkembang dengan sangat pesat.

Lalu bagaimana dengan kondisi entrepreneurship di Indonesia. Inilah yang saya lihat masih kurang berkembang. Sulit sekali bagi mereka yang punya ide inovatif untuk mendapatkan dana untuk risetnya. Kalaupun riset sudah dilakukan dan sudah ada hasil outputnya, biasanya tetap hanya berkutat dikampus. Hasil-hasil riset tersebut terpendam dan tak bisa berkembang karena tidak adanya pihak yang bersedia memberdayakan hasil riset tersebut untuk diimplementasikan di khalayak publik. Contoh konkrit dari kondisi ini adalah hasil riset lab JST (Jaringan Saraf Tiruan) di kampus saya. Yang saya tahu, lab riset tersebut sangat produktif, menghasilkan banyak produk-produk teknologi tinggi. Lab tersebut merupakan salah satu rujukan seluruh dunia untuk masalah neural network. Namun sayangnya hasil riset tersebut selama ini masih hanya berkutat dalam lingkup kampus. Seandainya ada pihak yang mau mendanai implementasi massifnya, pasti hasil riset tersebut akan lebih terasa manfaatnya.

Upaya untuk membangun model silicon valley di Indonesia sebenarnya sudah banyak, contohnya adalah: Bandung High Tech Valley, Bogor Cybertech Valley, Multimedia Infocom Resources di Yogyakarta, dan Malang Information Techno Farm. Diantara 4 konsentrasi tersebut, mungkin yang paling serius digarap adalah BHTV (bandung High Tech Valley) yang digawangi oleh mas budi rahadjo. Mas budi berpikir bahwa Bandung merupakan tempat paling kondusif untuk membangun model silicon valley Indonesia. Beliau berpikir seperti itu karena di Bandung sudah ada institusi riset seperti ITB, Unpad dsb yang diharapkan mampu menghasilkan inovasi-inovasi kreatif layaknya stanford university di silicon valley. Namun, saat ini proyek BHTV tersebut belum dapat berkembang karena kurangnya faktor yang kedua, faktor entrepreneurship. Kita masih sulit untuk menemukan capital venture yang mau membimbing para inovator dari kampus supaya produk inovatifnya dapat berkembang. Kita masih sulit menemukan angel investor yang berani mengambil resiko tinggi untuk membiayai ide yang belum tentu bisa sukses.

Pada tulisan berikutnya saya akan mencoba mengulas tentang peluang untuk mengembangkan faktor entrepreneurship untuk membangun silicon valley Indonesia. Saya menemukan sekelompok orang yang punya jiwa layaknya para pemodal ventura di silicon valley. Saya melihat potensi besar yang dimiliki oleh sebuah organisasi bernama Maestro yang punya tujuan mendorong setiap bentuk entrepreneurship dikalangan mahasiswa. Siapakah sekelompok orang tersebut? organisasi macam apakah maestro itu? Tunggu saja tulisan berikutnya ya :)

A juicio de Emma McGrattan, una de las programadoras más prestigiosas de Silicon Valley, mujeres y hombres tienen enfoques totalmente distintos en la programación.

McGrattan, vicepresidenta de desarrollo de la empresa Ingress, indica que las mujeres son más sensibles y consideradas frente a las personas que usarán el código que ellas programan. Así, las mujeres procuran instalar comentarios de ayuda e instrucciones que explican por qué el código fue escrito de esa manera, y la forma en que lo hicieron.

“El código se transforma en una suerte de guía para otros, para facilitarles las cosas si desean agregar o cambiar algo posteriormente", comentó McGrattan a Wall Street Journal.

Grattan indica que, por el contrario, los programadores varones no son tan considerados "e intentan demostrar lo inteligentes que son escribiendo códigos altamente ininteligibles. No dejan instrucciones y procuran deliberadamente que los elementos del código sean incomprensibles", agrega McGrattan.

En un intento por hacer que el código de Ingres sea más amigable para el usuario, McGrattan ha desarrollado un nuevo estándar para la programación en la compañía. Así, ahora se exige que los programadores agregen comentarios detallados a su trabajo, donde se expliqué la función del código y el porqué. Asimismo, se pide a los desarrolladores elaborar una bitácora con la historia del código y los cambios que hayan sido aplicados. Las reglas se aplican a los empleados de Ingres y a los programadores de código abierto externos, que escriben código para la empresa.

McGrattan indica que en el 70 a 80 por ciento de los casos que observa código fuente puede determinar si ha sido escrito por un hombre o por una mujer.

You know, other than offering full coverage of their launch.

In the meantime - head over to SAI and laugh some more

En Diciembre de 1990, Patrick Naughton, un empleado de la empresa Sun, reclutó a sus colegas James Gosling y Mike Sheridan para trabajar sobre un nuevo tema conocido como "El proyecto verde". Este a su vez estaba auspiciado por la compañía "Sun founder Bill Joy" y tenía como objetivo principal crear un lenguaje de programación accesible, fácil de aprender y de usar, que fuera universal, y que estuviera basado en un ambiente C++ ya que había mucha frustración por la complejidad y las limitaciones de los lenguajes de programación existentes.

En abril de 1991, el equipo decidió introducir sistemas de software con aplicaciones para consumidores smart como plataforma de lanzamiento para su proyecto. James Gosling escribió el compilador original y lo denominó "Oak", y con la ayuda de los otros miembros del equipo desarrollaron un decodificador que mas tarde se convertiría en lenguaje Java.

Para 1992, el equipo ya había desarrollado un sistema prototipo conocido como "*7", que era una especie de cruce entre un asistente digital personalizado y un mecanismo inteligente de control remoto.

Por su parte el presidente de la compañía Sun, Scott McNealy, se dio cuenta en forma muy oportuna y estableció el Proyecto Verde como una subsidiaria de Sun. De 1993 a 1994, el equipo de Naughton se lanzó en busca de nuevas oportunidades en el mercado, mismas que se fueron dando mediante el sistema operativo base. La incipiente subsidiaria fracasó en sus intentos de ganar una oferta con Time-Warner, sin embargo el equipo concluyó que el mercado para consumidores electrónicos smart y las cajas Set-Up en particular, no eran del todo eficaces. La subsidiaria Proyecto Verde fue amortizada por la compañía Sun a mediados del 94’.

Afortunadamente, el cese del Proyecto Verde coincidió con el nacimiento del fenómeno mundial Web. Al examinar las dinámicas de Internet, lo realizado por el ex equipo verde se adecuaba a este nuevo ambiente ya que cumplía con los mismos requerimientos de las set-top box OS que estaban diseñadas con un código de plataforma independiente pero sin dejar de ser pequeñas y confiables.

Patrick Naugthon procedió a la construcción del lenguaje de programación Java que se accionaba con un browser prototipo, más tarde se le fueron incorporando algunas mejoras y el browser Hot Java fue dado a conocer al mundo en 1995.

Con el paso del tiempo el Hot Java se convirtió en un concepto práctico dentro del leguaje Java y demostró que podría proporcionar una forma segura multiplataforma para que el código pueda ser bajado y corrido del Host del World Wide Web y que de otra forma no son seguros.

Una de las características más atractivas del Hot Java fue su soporte para los "applets", que son las partes del código Java que pueden ser cargadas mediante una red de trabajo para después ejecutarlo localmente y así lograr o alcanzar soluciones dinámicas en computación acordes al rápido crecimiento del ambiente Web.

Para dedicarse al desarrollo de productos basados en la tecnología Java, Sun formó la empresa Java Soft en enero de 1996, de esta forma de se dio continuidad al fortalecimiento del programa del lenguaje Java y así trabajar con terceras partes para crear aplicaciones, herramientas, sistemas de plataforma y servicios para aumentar las capacidades del lenguaje.

Durante ese mismo mes, Java Soft dio a conocer el Java Developmet Kit (JDK) 1.0, una rudimentaria colección de componentes básicos para ayudar a los usuarios de software a construir aplicaciones de Java. Dicha colección incluía el compilador Java, un visualizador de applets, un debugger prototipo y una máquina virtual Java(JVM), necesaria para correr programas basados en Java, también incluía paquetería básica de gráficos, sonido, animación y trabajo en red.

Asimismo el Netscape Comunications Inc, mostró las ventajas de Java y rápidamente se asoció con Java Soft para explotar su nueva tecnología. No pasó mucho tiempo antes de que Netscape Communications decidiera apoyar a los Java applets en Netscape Navigator 2.0. Este fue el factor clave que lanzó a Java a ser reconocido y famoso, y que a su vez forzó a otros vendedores para apoyar el soporte de applets en Java.

Como parte de su estrategia de crecimiento mundial y para favorecer la promoción de su nueva tecnología, Java Soft otorgó permisos a otras compañías para que pudieran tener acceso al código fuente de Java y al mismo tiempo mejorar sus navegadores , dicha licencia también les permitía crear herramientas de desarrollo para programación Java y los facultaba para acondicionar Máquinas Virtuales Java (JVM), a varios sistemas operativos.

Muy pronto las licencias o permisos contemplaban a prestigiadas firmas como IBM, Microsoft, Symantec, Silicon Graphics, Oracle, Toshiba y por supuesto Novell.

Desde su aparición, Java se ha ganado una impresionante cantidad de apoyo. Virtualmente cada vendedor importante de software ha obtenido autorización de Java y ahora ha sido incorporado en los principales sistemas operativos base de PC’s de escritorio hasta estaciones de trabajo UNIX.

Los applets Java (basados en JDK 1.02) son apoyados por los dos más populares navegadores web (Netscape Navigator 3.0 y Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0). I.B.M./Lotus, Computer Asociates, Symantec, Informix, Oracle, Sybase y otras poderosas empresas de software están construyendo Software 100% puro JAVA, por ejemplo el Corel Office que actualmente está en versión Beta.

Un gran número de nuevas empresas ya están preparadas para recibir a la Ola Java o para ingresar a los Mercados de software basados en Java, en algunos casos como "Marimba´s Castanet" se han concebido desde un principio con bases de tecnología Java para Internet y han sido autorizados bajo licencia de Netscape para poner al corriente "netcast", un producto informativo para PC’s de escritorio.

Los nuevos proyectos de Java son co-patrocinados por cientos de millones de dólares en capital disponible de recursos tales como la Fundación Java, un fondo común de capital formado el verano pasado por 11 compañías, incluyendo Cisco Systems, IBM, Netscape y Oracle.

Los Colegios y Universidades alrededor del mundo están adoptando Java como un lenguaje universal y de enseñanza indispensable, hoy en día existen más de 150 libros en Java que se están imprimiendo en este momento.

En un reciente estudio se encontró que el 60% de los empresarios están usando Java y el 40% expresaron que Java representa la solución estratégica que estaban buscando para sus negocios..

Para darse una idea de la rápida aceptación que tiene Java en el mundo, tenemos el ejemplo de las conferencias "Java Soft Java One" en San Francisco, el primer Java One fue celebrado en abril de 1996 y atrajo a 5000 usuarios, un año después, en la segunda conferencia Java One albergó a 10,000 usuarios, asistentes. Java Soft estima que el número actual de usuarios Java llega a 400 mil y sigue creciendo. Java también está ganando aceptación en el área empresarial, se ha estimado que actualmente las compañías de hoy que cuentan con más de 5000 empleados, una tercera parte están usando Java.

Le avessi scovate prima mi sarei risparmiato una serie di: Tenda a pacchetto? Tenda arricciata a pacchetto? Tenda in organza? Tenda a rullo? Tende a pacchetto steccato? Bastoni in acciaio? Tenda drappeggio? etc...

...bastava una calamita.

[Magnetic Curtain]
Florian Kräutli

Lascio commentare questo post a chi ha saputo sintetizzare in modo esemplare il concetto creatività:

"La Creatività è collegare le cose. Quando chiedi a persone creative come hanno fatto a fare qualcosa, si sentono quasi in colpa perché non l’hanno realmente creato... hanno soltanto immaginato qualcosa. E dopo un po’ è sembrato ovvio. Questo perché sono stati capaci di collegare le esperienze vissute e sintetizzarle in nuove cose”.

[Steven P. Jobs, 2005]
I pirati di Silicon Valley

That sums me up pretty well.  Even though I don't always spend the time on my own presentation, I need to work on that, I still believe in the power of judgment and split second opinions (that Malcom Gladwell wrote about in his second acclaimed book Blink).  Hence the reason for business cards.

For the most part, they're just scraps of paper to put your contact information.  Some (leave it to me to always forget names and where I read things- actually I read it in Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good by Sarah Lacy) have said that they use business cards to end the conversation.  If someone is particularly monotonous, she'd just hand over her card and go on to the next willing participant.  In theory, the expansion of mobile devices and the Silicon VCs constantly touting mobile devices as the 'next big thing' would corrode the use of business cards.

But (!) they're still here today, and from what I can gather, still going strong.  In the last year or so, companies such as Moo have soared into popularity for its diverse offering of business cards, while some blogs dedicate entries to the best ones out there. 

Personally, I love business cards.  They're the epitome of self expression (or in the case of a company, group identity) constrained to a portable size and with unlimited freedom in design.  My company, PR agency SHIFT Communications, has a pretty boom-ass card.  It may not be the most daring, but it has it's own style.

The problem is, sometimes, I don't want to hand out my corporate card.  Outside meeting random people, with whom I can trade phone numbers or now Twitter usernames, and professional networking events, where my SHIFT business card would quite suffice, I want to be able to hand out my own card- one that's given to potential partners, who aren't necessarily friends but definitely aren't corporate either.  So begins my hunt for what card is me.  (I figured that I could design a card once I know my contraints: medium, colors, price.)

.

First, I fell in love with the perforated business cards.  It comes in a book of 20, and you just tear them out.  The single torn edge makes the memory of trading cards stick, and it's organized with a slick cover.  Books of ten (or 200 cards) run about $137 plus shipping.  At the time, I thought this is exorbitant.

Then, the moo cards came pouring in.  Although I like that each card can have your choice of a different background, either from Flickr, ripped images or your own design, they were everywhere.  I want some unique.  The half sized card that seemed wider than your average business card size made organizing hard, and frankly, I just don't like it.  Next.

For a period, I'd given up on finding something really different.  One that didn't require me to design, print and cut it all myself.  Besides, 200 letter pressed cards with custom paper and a custom cut could run in the upper hundreds.

Then, I stumbled on the "frosted plastic" business cards. I love the rounded edges, the thickness, the opacity, and if I end up switching to something else, I could use them as faux coasters. :-)

So my next financial goal after some late summer vacations and the new G3 iPhone (yes, I want the new one even though I just bought the $600 first generation a mere 1 year ago), I'm going to invest in some pretty plastic.  Cost?  A 250 order with 4 colors front, 1 color back (just a URL at the bottom or something) on this lovely frosted plastic would run $403 including shipping.  Holy-friggin'-cow.  But well worth it, right?

I was reminded of something very simple that my father (in his late '60s) said about the Internet five years ago,
"Eventually, the landlord is going to raise the rent."

Get out. Run. This ship is burning ... again.

The money comes from all over the world, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Bessemer Venture Partners, Jerusalem Venture Partners, Flagship Venture Partners, Duff Ackerman and Goodrich, Harris and Harris, DEA Capital, NCD Investors and Pinnacle Ventures. But Kovio has especially piqued the interest of Japanese investors eager to find cheaper and cleaner silicon fab processes for their huge electronics businesses. Across the Pacific, Kovio's investors include Panasonic Ventures, Mitsui Venture, Yasuda Enterprise and Toppan Forms.

Kovio's technology combines silicon ink with inkjet-style fabrication. The process allows the company to print low-cost, albeit low-intelligence, silicon circuits directly onto cheap, and potentially flexible, substrates. This means RFID and item-level intelligence can be built directly into products and labeling. Consumers will be seeing these circuits far more frequently and demanding green processes, Vik Pavate, VP of Business Development, tells Earth2Tech.

There's a reason chip makers wear those full-body Tyvek suits: Silicon semiconductor fabrication is a dirty business. "The dirtiest room in the world is actually the clean room in silicon fab," Pavate says. By his estimates, it takes 62 million liters of chemicals, 17 million liters of hazardous gases and 2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity to make 100 billion RFID tags using traditional fab methods.

Kovio, he claims, can produce the same 100 billion tags using 5 percent of those chemicals, 0.05 percent of those gases and between 10 percent and 25 percent of that electricity. But perhaps the most important efficiency is the saved silicon. In traditional fab, silicon wafers are usually ground down to the needed thinness, wasting precious material. With printing, it's an additive process, depositing only the needed silicon where it needs to be.

Kovio is not the only one working in printed electronics. Thin-film solar companies like Nanosolar print thin layers of non-silicon photovoltaic materials onto flexible substrates. Also, organic LED fabrication, which GE recently demonstrated, uses printing technology to create illuminating circuits. But Kovio says they're sticking with silicon. "We really like the idea of leveraging silicon as much as we can," Pavate explains.

The company has about 45 employees currently, but will likely ramp up as production begins over the next three years. Pavate says they're going after a market opportunity of "a few billion dollars" as RFID tags could immediately be integrated into access control, toll booths and livestock management. Once tags start rolling off the presses Kovio hopes to be rolling in the money; it isn't currently look for investment.

Image of printed circuits courtesy of Kovio.

Domnisoara Diana aka. Iguana, e deja un nimeni cunoscut.
A aparut de doua ori la acasa tv mandrindu-de ca nu face nimic special ci doar cheltuie banii iubitului ei si a parintilor; pe langa asta a spus o replica care a facut deja istorie "silicoanele nu tin loc de creier", iar acum toate pitzipoancele ii urmeaza exemplul.
Inca ceva... Iti mai faci multe operatii estetice ? Deja arati ca un travestit!