Many of us who have been stuck in rush hour traffic have wondered when auto makers will finally develop a flying car that can drive on the roads and fly just above the roads. We’ve seen this on television shows such as the Jetsons, and movies such as Star Wars, but I’ll bet most of us never expected the flying car to happen in our lifetime.
The Terrafugia Transitionis scheduled later this month to take its maiden flight. If all goes according to plans, it may be in show rooms within 18 months. This flying car was designed by former NASA engineers. It transforms from a car to a plane in 15 seconds, fits into a normal-sized garage, uses unleaded gasoline, can fly up to 500 miles on a single tank of petrol at a cruising speed of 115mph, has been tested at driving speeds of 90 MPH, and sells for an expected retail price of $200,000.
Many issues must be resolved before the flying car will reach main stream. For example, all flying car drivers will be required to obtain time-intensive FAA pilots license, no state but Alaska allowing pilots to take off from roads, and the price is still out of most of our price ranges. However, if this flying car maiden flight is successful, it signals that the future of the flying car for the masses may be closer than we all expected.
Read more about it.
Posted on January 14th, 2009 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Innovation | No Comments »
I recently finished Made to Stick, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath and thoroughly enjoyed this book. One of my favorite portions described the “Mother Teresa Principle”. One of this saintly woman’s famous teachings was, ”If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.”
Made to Stick talks about a research study that compared the effectiveness of donation requests using different approaches. One donation request provided statistics about the masses of people in one region of Africa facing hunger and poverty. The second letter simply told the story of one needy girl from that region and said that all money donated would go to her. Obviously, the second letter was tremendously more successful. Read more…
Posted on January 10th, 2009 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Adoption, Charity, Ending Poverty, Entrepreneurship, Ethics, Giving Back, Global Orphan Crisis, Innovation, Microlending, Social Enterprise, e-Business | 5 Comments »
One of my large consulting clients uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host their popular digital media properties. AWS is the next generation of website hosting, providing advanced services to website owners, such as quickly scaling the number of used servers up or down to meet website traffic demands. Many websites, including my own, have had serious problems scaling as traffic grows. AWS helps solve this and a variety of other issues. However, as I have tried to use AWS for one of my own projects, I found that AWS was too complex, and presented too much of a learning curve for the average web hosting consumer.
However, this week Amazon released a new web-based console for AWS, allowing this service to be run by people like me with a point-and-click AJAX interface.
Read more about it on the AWS blog post.
If you’re building a small-volume website, AWS is overkill, but if you are trying to build a large website, AWS allows you to run on a next-generation hosting platform, developed by Amazon.com and avoid a lot of the headaches that digital media enterepreneurs have had to endure in the past.
Have you used AWS or another next-generation hosting solution, and if so, what has been your experience?
Posted on January 10th, 2009 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: e-Business | 1 Comment »
Years ago I heard a story about a person who was driving down the freeway and approaching an interchange with two possible directions the driver could choose. One person in the car was telling the driver to go right and another person was telling the driver to go left. The driver was unable to make a decision, and ended up running into a cement pylon that divided the two paths.
I have no idea if this story is true, but it illustrates clearly a common problem that businesses experience as they start to grow. I have observed this type of paralysis which results from indecision, and often the results of not making a decision are worse than either of the viable decisions that could have been made.
Read more…
Posted on November 25th, 2008 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Business Management, Entrepreneurship | No Comments »
Despite a declining economy, industry experts are projecting an increase in online advertising spending. eMarketer’s projection, benchmarked against the latest Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) data, puts online ad spending at $25.7 billion in 2009. That is 8.9% over the $23.6 billion that will be spent in 2008, and pretty good considering how other advertising formats are being hit. Read more.
Posted on November 25th, 2008 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Advertising, Internet Marketing, Monetization, e-Business | No Comments »
The following blog entry is a review of a movie I recently watched, titled Forever Strong.
Warning: The movies I like the best generally get poor reviews with movie critics. “It’s a Wonderful Life” is one of my all-time favorite movies. I love the epic battle between good and evil and do not think it is “over the top” when good triumphs. I love movies that make me want to be better. I realize these kinds of movies aren’t for everyone. So, if you don’t agree with my cinematic preferences, you’re probably not going to like this movie.
Forever Strong, is a movie (based on a true story) about Rick Penning, a self-centered, out-of-control, star rugby player who lands himself in a juvenile corrections facility after a repeat drunk driving accident in which he almost killed his girlfriend. The director of the corrections facility notices Rick’s love for rugby and offers Rick the opportunity to play for the longtime rival Highland Rugby team, and its legendary Coach Gelwix. Read more…
Posted on November 16th, 2008 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Leadership, Life Lessons, Movie Reviews, Relationships, Self Improvement | No Comments »
One of my favorite scriptures describes a holy man named Moroni who lived during the year 72 B.C.:
If all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men. (Alma 48:8-19)
For many years I have read and pondered this scripture and tried to emulate Moroni, albeit unsuccessfully. Years ago my wife even gave me a painting of Moroni with this scripture for my office because she knew how much it meant to me.
However, though the years of focusing on this scripture, I failed to connect it with the full context of the situation in which this description of Moroni is given. Moroni was the army captain of a group of Christians named Nephites who lived in the ancient Americas shortly before Christ’s birth. Moroni’s people were ruled democratically by elected judges, yet on multiple occasions Captain Moroni had to put down revolutions from a faction of the people who wanted to appoint a king. The man who started this internal revolution, and who desired to be the king, was named Amalickiah. Read more…
Posted on November 10th, 2008 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Faith, Leadership, Life Lessons, Relationships, Self Improvement | No Comments »
As many of you know, I am passionate about online missionary work. This is a topic that Elder M. Russell Ballard has been discussing lately as well. Earlier this year I had one of the most amazing experiences of my life when David Neeleman and I were able to site down will Elder Ballard and discuss this topic. His insight and vision are amazing.
In the July 2008 Ensign magazine, Elder Ballard published an article titled Sharing the Gospel on the Internet, which was adapted a commencement address he gave at Brigham Young University–Hawaii on December 15, 2007. I blogged about that address, but I am so excited about this Ensign article that I am including it in its entirity in this blog post:
With new technological tools, you can further the work of the Lord by joining the ongoing conversation about the Church.
I am in my 80th year. By some accounts that makes me pretty old. Actually, some folks think some of the Brethren may be too old to know what’s going on in your world. Let me assure you we are very much aware. Read more…
Posted on November 9th, 2008 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Faith, Online Missionary Work | No Comments »
Lee Falin has released a free scriptures application for the iPhone named “The Scriptures”. This version contains all of the standard works for the LDS Church and the ability to search for a word or phrase across all of the scriptures. It does NOT yet contain foot notes, Topical Guide, Bible Dictionary, scripture marking ability, or any languages other than English. I’ve tried it and am very happy with the functionality so far.
Lee’s website for this project
Download the app in the iTunes Store
Posted on November 9th, 2008 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Faith, iPhone | No Comments »
This year I started an Internet consulting practice, which has gravitated towards Internet strategy, monetization and marketing. Recently, much of my consulting work has focused on helping businesses to better monetize their websites, social media applications, and mobile device applications.
Monetization through virtual currencies and virtual goods is a topic that has fascinated me recently. Online communities have developed virtual currencies which can be purchased or earned, and then can be redeemed to buy virtual goods or services within the community. For example, a community member could purchase a suit of armor in a multi-player game, or virtual flowers to send to a friend who is sick.
Last month, the Associated Press reported that GaiaOnline.com collects $1 million per month from players buying virtual goods ranging from puppy ears to lightning bolts. Read more…
Posted on October 24th, 2008 by Nathan Gwilliam
Filed under: Monetization, Online Communities, Social Networking, Virtual Goods, e-Business | No Comments »
