by JAK | Jul 16, 2015 | big ideas, culture, films, industry futures, video
Some days I want to remix everything. I’ve been like that for 40+ years (for me) and now the technology makes it easy to do.* It started with music. After a few listens to a track I always want another version. Am I a creative megalomaniac? Not really it’s...
by JAK | Jul 10, 2015 | culture, films
This will be my first film festival since getting Netflix. It makes picking which films to see a bit different as a fair number of the documentaries will turn up. Sure I like to see film on a big screen and the non English language ones are less likely to make it to a...
by JAK | Jun 9, 2015 | general business, industry futures
Much to the surprise of IT folks the tax department in NZ has decided to pick a little known IT firm in Colorado to replace the current tax system. The NZherald reports US firm wins contract in $1b IRD project “The Inland Revenue Department has selected Fast...
by JAK | Jun 2, 2015 | culture, video
Back when I was a teenager in rural New Zealand I voraciously read the novels of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I started with One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, The First Circle and Cancer Ward. In a 1970’s world we were still concerned with the Soviet Union and...
by JAK | May 30, 2015 | big ideas, industry futures, video
At TEDxAuckland 2015 -two of the most outstanding talks were about health issues. Prof Grant Schofield spoke about putting the public into public health, and Dr Hong Sheng Chiong on Fighting blindness with $20 and a smart phone Grant told a story about a diabetes...
by JAK | May 21, 2015 | culture, industry futures
The short answer is no. A news story this week 5 Banks to Pay Billions and Plead Guilty in Currency and Interest Rate Cases “Adding another entry to Wall Street’s growing rap sheet, five big banks have agreed to pay about $5.6 billion and plead guilty to...
by JAK | May 12, 2015 | big ideas, industry futures, video
It has been just over a week since the Tesla Powerwall battery was announced by Elon Musk. As he mentioned this represents a fundamental transformation in the way that energy is used in the home and in businesses. What the Powerwall battery enables is a way to bridges...
by JAK | May 8, 2015 | general business, industry futures
Buried away in a story on substandard concrete being supplied to 70 sites in Auckland are a few clues that the building industry sector is heading for another disaster. New Zealand’s largest publicly listed company Fletchers via their subsidiary Firth is being...
by JAK | May 6, 2015 | big ideas, development, industry futures, video
A few days ago Tesla solved one of the bigger problems for renewable energy – low cost storage. “Tesla’s home battery, named “Powerwall,” is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that mounts on the wall and comes in 7 kilowatt-hour or 10 kilowatt-hour...
by JAK | May 3, 2015 | big ideas, TEDx
TEDxAuckland 2015 #TEDxAkl was most excellent yesterday. Sixteeen speakers, live music, great coffee and 2000 or so attendees all along for the ideas adventure. wow just wow #tedxakl was mindblowing and amazing and all things wonderful!! — @vivsternz@mastodon.nz...
