Book Review: Small Is The New Big

I've read couple of Seth Godin books before and always enjoyed those. This Small Is The New Big got to my bookshelf almost by accident, but knowing the author I couldn't leave it unread. I'm so happy I did read it. Even though the book is bit old already the ideas in it are mainly fresh and valuable.

This book is not a real book actually. It's a collection of best blog posts from Seth. For the weirdest reasons it's in alphabetic order, but it still flows quite nicely forward.

It's hard to say anything actual about the book. The only thing I can say is that I felt really energetic reading this book. I was full of ideas and even made some decisions about my future goals reading this book.

I think I'll make it mandatory for myself to read one Seth Godin a year. Even I knew exactly what to expect from the book, still I amazed myself to feel so good reading it. Seth has a brilliant mind and good writing skills which makes the reading experience wonderful.

I recommend to read some of Seth Godin books. If you can't really concentrate on reading properly, this is the book for you. Stories are short but full with good insights. If you enjoy reading more take some other of Seth Godin books.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Super cool augmented reality cinema - not really augmented though

There's a super cool augmented reality cinema app video going viral, definitely worth of checking out. Here's their web pages also: augmentedrealitycinema.com



I'm going to be nitpicker. I don't see how in earth it could really work as augmented reality app? Films are shoot in one or couple different angles, but in order it to really be an augmented reality it would need to be available in all angles and actually shown on top of the view you are looking. Quite challenging, I must say.

From the video you can see, that app is mainly playing back the scenes from the actual movies, so not really augmenting those in the view you are watching. So it's not really augmented reality app, but more of virtual reality based on location.

That's said, the app looks really great and idea is marvelous. It's a perfect addition to movie and series location tourism. I'm eagerly waiting to see it really in action.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Take pictures you can focus later

I run into to this new camera type from Lytro, which will take pictures so that you don't need to focus. You can actually leave the focusing to the one's who are looking the picture later. Here's promotional video about their solution:



Here's some picture's from their demo gallery, so you can see and try it yourself. So tick different places in image to focus on that level:


By Lytro / Richard Koci Hernandez
Sophie Hernandez, 13, lost in her favorite book.


By Lytro / Jason Bradley
Shore entry in Monterey Bay, California


By Lytro / Eric Cheng
The colorful crowds of Hollywood, CA.

I don't want to judge too much in this phase of what purpose this could be used, but definitely there will be use for this kind of camera. I would guess it will cost a lot for starters, but as all technology it will come cheaper over time.

It will make one aspect of photography totally different. You can't play with focus as you have used to, but you must use focus much more creatively, since users can focus your pictures later on.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Amazing timelapse video by Terje Sorgjerd

Amazing and really beautiful video shot in many different locations (Check the Vimeo site for details). One of the most amazing ones I've ever seen.



The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

Here's the Facebook fan page of the artist TSO Photography.
 
Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Seth Godin talks about leadership strategy

One of my favorite bloggers and authors Seth Godin talks about leadership and much more. One thing I always admire on Seth, is the way he is always short, but informative, he is inspiring, but doesn't waste your time with unnecessary jargon and there's always something new to think about. Check the video out.



Exclusive interview with Seth Godin from GiANT Impact on Vimeo.  

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Beautiful ad - road safety

How touching can ad be. They included long list of life learning's and statements to think about to a one, touching ad. Definitely worth of watching.



In a mass of meaningless waste of time in ads, there's always some pearls to get inspired from. To find these pearls, I follow Ads of the World where I found this one also.  

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Seeing yourself, believing yourself

Wonderful and inspiring story from Caroline Casey. Ted talk: Caroline Casey: Looking past limits



It's amazing what people get done when they believe in themselves. Story from Caroline also shows the other side of it. You should really understand and accept who you are in order to really believe in yourself.  

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

First boat to go around the globe with only solar power

There has been for a half a year already expedition ongoing to go around the world with boat using only solar power. They have already got half way around the world and are currently heading from Central-America to Australia.

Using solar power for boats makes lot of sense and definitely will be the way to go in future. Sea and sun goes well together and specifically for leisure purposes these kind of boats seem great. Hopefully also soon in the future there would be enough capacity to carry cargo with those. If you are interested go to see the details from their website and see the route and lot more info with videos and maps about journey. 

PlanetSolar

Here's the boat details from their website:

Technology

PlanetSolar is a catamaran that runs solely on the energy found in light. Additional removable parts allow it to expose a total of 537 m2 of photovoltaic modules (solar panels) to the sun. This impressive data makes it the biggest solar-powered ship in the world. 

• Legnth: 31 m
• Width: 15 m
• Length with flaps: 35 m
• Width with flaps: 23 m
• Height: 6.1 m
• Draft: 1.55 m
• Weight: 95 t
• Surface area of solar modules: 537 m²
• PV panel efficiency: 18.8%
• Installed PV power: 93.5 kW (127.0 hp)
• Average engine consumption: 20 kW (26.8 hp)
• Crew: 6 people
• Number of people that can go on board: 40
• Autonomy: never-ending solar navigation

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

How learning, charity and new technology come together

I run into couple of inspiring services which combines learning and charity type of behavior. They are both taking advantages of Skype. First one is connection native language speakers in Latin America and Africa to people who want to learn French and Spanish and second one is connecting children in India to volunteers who want to help these kids to learn.

The idea behind Glovico is brilliant. Native speakers in countries where hourly wages are smaller than in many western countries can give private language learning lessons. Many in western countries couldn't afford over 40 Eurors (~55 dollars) hourly wages for private language lessons. With this service you can get 5-6 hours with that same amount. Maybe the teaching methods are not the same than in some western countries, but most important thing is that you can talk and chat with native speaking person.

Second service is Solesandsomes. It stands for Self Organizing Learning Environments & Self Organized Mediation Environments. SOLE part is about creating environment where kids can learn anything interesting around the web. SOME part is actually the one I see more inspiring. In that they are connecting volunteers around UK and elsewhere to read stories to children and being mentors for these kids. Original idea was grannies reading fairytales for kids, but it grew to be much more. People are actually helping these kids to learn about life and learning.

There are actually almost countless possibilities for each of us to learn more. There are open universities and lectures you can take for free in the web. For example check Khan Academy for maths learning or Academic Earth for University level education. And I bet there are more.

I think world is really going towards education that is free and available to those who really want to learn.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

You choose to have an awesome life

Really inspiring TED speech about how your own choices decide how your life is. It's all about Attitude, Awareness, Authenticity.

From Neil Pasricha author of the blog 1000 awesome things.



I loved the sentence "being you and being cool with that".  

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen