So who will make the first app that lets me strap my iPhone to my back wherein its sensors feed a program on the device, or more Siri-like on a remote server, that keep me upright after swilling pints all afternoon?

I guess version 1.0 has a backpack with a segway-like bundle doing the heavy lifting. Version 2.0 communicates with my inner-ear to hack my natural mechanism for balance.

Anyone for kebab tonight?

If you don’t know about this, he’s the guy who posted some crazy number of very popular Youtube videos teaching 10 minute chunks of everything from chemistry to maths to history to economics. It’s a revolutionary approach to teaching and something I think is the future, watch the video and be prepared to start shaking your head yes.

And Khan’s approach appears to an area where both Google and Bill Gates agree.

The topic today is founder control -compel vs convince. After a series A round can the founders retain control of the board?

I feel like we’re at a tipping point here. A lot of VCs still act as if founders retaining board control after a series A is unheard-of. A lot of them try to make you feel bad if you even ask—as if you’re a noob or a control freak for wanting such a thing. But the founders I heard from aren’t noobs or control freaks. Or if they are, they are, like Mark Zuckerberg, the kind of noobs and control freaks VCs should be trying to fund more of.

And BTW, since I’ve been reading and working more than posting let me wish all of you who I did not get to see / talk to in the past few months a happy and merry holiday!

Saw this video, thought is worth sharing:

It’s got a bit of everything, factual history, reminiscing, opinion (i.e., iPad, IE, web standards, etc.).

Across the board it’s an excellent piece. And it turned me on to a new bit of kit from RunRev, some clever geeks in Edinburgh.

Watch this video:

Over at GigiOm, Liz Gaines has a piece for noobs re how the hashtag became a component of the twitter vernacular after having grown up in the world of IRC.

According to Twitter, 11 percent of tweets now contain hashtags. This is on a platform that sees more than 50 million tweets per day.

Chris Messina (@factoryjoe) called them “channel tags” (as in IRC channel) in the beginning, however the name hashtag became more popular.

Just so you know, a hashtag looks like this: #hashtag

By putting a hash sign in the front of one of the words in your tweet you let others know the category. There can be more than one category. And there is no official dictionary of hastags, so feel free to make up your own.

When someone searches on a term (i.e., antisense) if you tweeted something like “Just read #antisense #mRNAi is major, big pharma #genetics #breakthroughs coming” they more easily find your tweet thanks to you hashtag emphasis.

Moral of the story: Simplicity Rules (kinda like pizza, eh?)

BTW, Santa if you’re still in the vicinity I just saw a demo video of a new toy I would have put on on my list for being a good boy all year. So please Santa, could you swing by with one of these, please please please, and instruct Parrot to install hi-def cams instead of the standard-issue ones.

As you know I’m a bit of a maps addict (thanks, Google), here’s three apps (in no particular sequence) you may find cool:

The Casper online flight tracker. A beautiful implementation for aircraft tracking.

The marinetraffic.com vessel tracking site is amazing. And I checked, looking at the vessels map in a browser and looking out the window at vessels outside the harbor is a direct match. Amazing stuff.

And of course you might be interested in turbulence, so there’s the Live Turbulence Explorer to tell you where to watch out when you’re taking off with your jet-pack.

Perhaps a narrow definition of private property got us here, whether it’s carbon credits, water or whatever, we could probably stand some examination of property and responsibility. It’s actually a very interesting problem this business of problem solving.

Climbing the wrong hill is something not easy to observe. If you travel in problem solving circles you can easily visualise the nature of the problem, the problem of solving the problem that is.

It’s easier to solve a problem if know where you are. For example imaging being on a journey, you are in a dense fog climbing a hill hoping to pass over a mountain range. But what if you knew there’s a higher hill that has an easier path across the range nearby, of what if the other hill has the path and yours doesn’t. Obviously you would back down and change hills in the latter case. But you are in a dense fog, remember? Mr. fog is making a hard time for you. And if you’ve got the crowd following you their all-knowing leader or you’re being swept up the wrong hill with the crowd what’s going to happen?

A big thanks and congrats to Lin Ostrom.

First, if you don’t know what El Sistema is, watch the video.

Okay, so now imagine how this concept, all the good will and constructive energy, could be expanded.

And then the reporter said: “You are in America now, what Americans?” Dudamel didn’t miss a beat and shot back ”I am talking about Americans!” — to which the room packed with journalists erupted in laughter and clapping.

That Latin America is indeed part of America is something that Dudamel brings up often, but always with good humor and patience. At his news conference he reiterated that America is one — Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, the United States, all included. That message is likely to resound in Los Angeles, a city that is half Hispanic and home to millions who migrated from southern portions of the Americas.

I get chills when I watch this TED Talk (WordPress is not letting me embed the video for some reason so follow the link; GD begins talk at about 5:20). The youth orchestra concept is powerful, wouldn’t it be cool if someone could get this together on a larger international scale? Anyone out there with more brains and bucks than me to work on such a project?