Tag: Blogs

Eugene Lin wanted to be rich. So, he decided to invent an iPhone application. With nothing but an accelerometer, two dozen naked women, and the nation of Japan, Eugene surprisingly found himself with a ripper story to tell (in under five minutes).

While most Australians will have enjoyed the wonderful economic prosperity that digging things out of the ground can bring (while there’s still a market in China) and enjoyed the fat of our land, grilled and shish-kebabed (when not exported to the Middle East), a minority - a rarely celebrated part of our ‘cultural mix’ - used the rare solace of a national public holiday to work on that thing often described as ‘innovation’.

We're conditioned to expect sturdiness from our protective head gear, but this prototypical helmet being developed by DoYouVélo? turns the concept on its... well... head. The honeycomb...

A Queensland entrepreneur is hoping Chinese demand will solve one of northern Australia’s most pressing natural problems: cane toads.

A Queensland entrepreneur is hoping Chinese demand will solve one of northern Australia’s most pressing natural problems: cane toads.

When a plucky young Apple fanboy asked Ballmer to sign his Macbook during a visit to Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee last week, the Microsoft Motivator-in-Chief played along, even scrawling a personal note along with his name.

When a plucky young Apple fanboy asked Ballmer to sign his Macbook during a visit to Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee last week, the Microsoft Motivator-in-Chief played along, even scrawling a personal note along with his name.

Market research company and business information provider IBISWorld has recently released its findings on Australia’s leading export industries for 2010 and their outlook for the next five years.

Whether it’s audio books, eBook readers or actual real books (with paper, for Gen Ys reading this), books are still one of the best ways to really learn something new. The increasing trend towards shorter, smaller, briefer, 140 characters is great to a sense of what’s going on, but it’s insufficient to actually change the way you think.

Whether it’s audio books, eBook readers or actual real books (with paper, for Gen Ys reading this), books are still one of the best ways to really learn something new. The increasing trend towards shorter, smaller, briefer, 140 characters is great to a sense of what’s going on, but it’s insufficient to actually change the way you think.

Books have always been a huge part of my life. But only an ostrich would deny that tectonic shifts are reforming the once-staid publishing industry. Here are my predictions for the biggest trends in publishing over the next five years.

So you want to start a business but time and money are holding you back? Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin has set himself the challenge of launching a startup in seven days for less than $500. He’s posting daily summaries for seven days. This is his fourth post in the series. If you’re new to this series, it’s worth reading the preceding posts for context.

Take this "Face Bank", which gobbles down each coin with ghoulish realism. The original model had eyes, but (perhaps moved by reports that it was inspiring night terrors in children) the makers updated it last year, removing the eyes and adding a nose, Easter Island style.

Take this "Face Bank", which gobbles down each coin with ghoulish realism. The original model had eyes, but (perhaps moved by reports that it was inspiring night terrors in children) the makers updated it last year, removing the eyes and adding a nose, Easter Island style.

So you want to start a business but time and money are holding you back? Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin has set himself the challenge of launching a startup in seven days for less than $500. He’s posting daily summaries for seven days. This is his third post in the series. If you’re new to this series, it’s worth reading the preceding posts for context.

In the fourth post in this series, Nigel Malone shares the contents of another of his favourite business keynote slides, drawn from a cross-section of sources that includes some of the great business, brand and military planners of all time.

I often get accused of bashing Microsoft and Oracle. In the interests of balance, here’s my message to Apple: If you want to go after enterprise business, make it a priority. Don’t toss it out there if it’s something you only plan to pursue in between hacky sack sessions and iPhone love-ins.

Essentially, it all comes down to this: We are going to a trade show to demonstrate our product. What do we need to do to ensure it is a success?

With visiting foreigners comprising up to one-third of all higher education students in New South Wales and Victoria, it’s clear that educating international students is big business in Australia. However, as Matthew da Silva and Mingming Feng report, Australia’s educational institutions have far more appetite for international student tuition than local employers have for hiring these students as legitimate employees, causing young foreigners to reconsider Australia as their educational destination of choice.

I realise the aim of this column is to be as open and honest as possible about my experiences raising capital, but at this point I’m eager not to do anything that might jeopardise our chances of success. If you think I’m being a little too prudent then let me tell you a painful story about how I learnt not to count chickens, the hard way...