Aaron dead.World wanderers, we have lost a wise elder.Hackers for right, we are one down.Parents all, we have lost a child. Let us weep.

— Tim Berners-Lee (@timberners_lee) January 12, 2013

Was Aaron’s death a desperate act? Or was it a bold act designed to awaken you and me from our sleepwalking existence? Does it change your view of the world? Will you re-examine your role in this new meta-physical world where knowledge and secrets hold more power than the hardware of the industrial age?

I’m distracted from my day-to-day events. I feel compelled to ask myself some serious questions.

(Photo credit: ragesoss via Flickr)

e-volo multicopter being flown by Thomas Senkel

The R/C world of multi-rotor helicopters meets the world of personal avionics. e-Volo has announced the first manned flight of an electric multicopter. Powered by 16 custom 3.75kw brushless electric motors, the 80 Kg multicopter, was manned and flown by inventor Thomas Senkel on October 21, 2011. Watch the video for a look at this historic flight.

While R/C hobbyists have been making small-scale multicopters based on brushless motors, Senkel’s flight is reported to be the first manned flight of a multi-rotor ultralight. Senkel, a physicist and engineer, has been developing custom brushless motors for 20 years. His custom motor windings have led to advances in power and efficiency making this scale of device possible.

The e-volo measures approximately five by five meters, has four jibs (with 4 propellers each), a basic weight of about 80 kg (including batteries). So it is an ultra light aircraft, which already as a prototype allows for a payload of about 80 kg. 16 propellers provide it with the necessary uplift and at the same time guarantee the required security, because beside the impressively easy construction without a complex mechanism the aircraft can be landed safely even with a malfunction of up to four engines.

from the e-volo Press Release

e-Volo plans to develop and sell multicopter ultralights commerically by improving the design and safety characteristics of their device.

e-volo multicopter design concept

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12 Essential WordPress plugins

• Akismet – prevents comment spam (installed by default)
• Analytics360 – shows your Google Analytics in the WordPress Dashboard
• Broken Link Checker – scans your site in the background for broken links and notifies you about them
• CryptX – encode email addresses to hide them from most spambots
• Related Posts Thumbnails – keep people reading on your site with a professional “related posts” list
• W3 Total Cache – the superman of caching plugins
• pageMash – rearrange pages with drag and drop
• Pretty Link Pro – create social media buttons, shortlinks, and more
• Video Thumbnails – creates image thumbnails of embedded (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.) videos
• WordPress Database Backup – email yourself a backup of the database and sleep well at night
• WordPress SEO by Yoast – arguably better then All-In-One SEO the olf WordPress favorite
• WPtouch – creates a simple, mobile version of your site with good options and no coding

One-Click Self-Installation of WordPress with Simple Scripts

http://videos.videopress.com/p0hQxkfg/bluehost-1-click-h264_hd.mp4

Ray Kurzweil has attracted a lot of attention in the technological community for his viewpoint on the acceleration of knowledge. His widely-read books on the matter are well-reasoned and detailed. They explain the “law of accelerating returns”, which states that the advances in technology has been increasing exponentially since the beginning of time. Yet, Kurzweil’s predictions point to a future in which the very meaning of what it is to be human is challenged. These predictions, regarding artificial intelligence and a global singularity of consciousness make Kurzweil the target of critical attacks and even mockery. Check out this trailer from the movie, Transcendant Man, that illustrates just what the fuss is all about. See also, CNN on Transcendant Man.

Microformats help people and machines understand what your content is “about”. This metadata helps search engines and humans to better understand your message in the context of related information.

Emily Lewis explains the importance of microformats and demonstrates how easy it is to implement them. Web designers, bloggers, and entrepreneuers can benefit from understanding and implementing microformats in their web apps and content management systems. Buy Emily’s book: Microformats Made Simple

History suggests the mobile Internet has potential to create / destroy more wealth than prior computing cycles based on 10x user multiplier effect (from cycle to cycle, the number of users / units increases tenfold). Regarding pace of change, more users will likely connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within 5 years.

Here’s a Powerpoint of the 92-slide presentation from Slideshare.net

View more documents from Subrahmanyam KVJ.

Download the full 2009 Mobile Internet Report directly from the Morgan Stanley web site.

We need to study the principles that keep good companies from turning into sucky ones. Here’s an internal NetFlix document that goes a long way to identifying key elements of successful organizations. Every college student should read this before entering the workforce.

View more presentations from Reed Hastings