Emailed Tim Cook and got my Macbook Fixed

Emailed Mark Fields and got my Mustang replaced

Apple

My parents bought me a Macbook Pro when i was in college. I was excited out of this world to own it as it was (and still is) the best laptop around. I took great care of it. Would cover it with a hand towel to protect from dust, clean the screen every week, not keep anything on it fearing it’d get damaged.

A prototype 3D bioprinter that can create totally functional human skin has been developed by scientists from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and BioDan Group in Spain. The skin has been used to treat burns as well as traumatic and surgical wounds in a large number of patients in Spain, according to the scientists.

The system provides two processes.

Autologous skin (from the patient’s own cells to generate human collagen) for therapeutic use, such as in the treatment of severe burns, instead of the animal collagen used in other methods.  The researchers have applied for approval by various European regulatory agencies to guarantee that the skin that is produced is adequate for use in transplants on burn patients and on those with other skin problems.

Image: Skin-producing bioprinter (credit: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)

To encourage loyalty, customers who purchase wine at the online store Yesmywine receive a stamp in the form of a “Country Medal” each time they buy a bottle. Customers who collect 12 medals over the course of a year receive a reward, such as a free bottle of wine.

Sounds like most standard loyalty programs, right? It’s not — there’s a catch.

Boston’s venture investing community looks a lot different today than it did just two years ago.

A new crop of venture funds has emerged to back the next wave of technology startups and, as Xconomy observed last year, perhaps change the way companies get funded and built in the Boston area.

Our recent analysis of the local venture scene found 14 early-stage, primarily tech-focused funds that have either started investing or announced their formation since the beginning of 2015. We only included brand new venture firms and other types of organizations that have raised (or are in the process of raising) their first venture fund. (See slideshow above, and drop me a line at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if I’ve missed any.)

Image: Glasswing Ventures Glasswing Ventures is raising $150 million to invest in early-stage companies working on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity technologies. Pictured above (left to right) are Rudina Seseri, co-founder and managing partner; Rick Grinnell, co-founder and managing partner; and managing director Sarah Fay. Photos courtesy of Glasswing.

Academics nationwide this weekend swiftly condemned an executive order signed by President Trump that, among other things, bars citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States for at least 90 days.

Scholars voiced grave concerns about the order, which singled out people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, and also suspended all refugee admissions to the United States for at least 120 days. Syrian refugees were barred indefinitely.

NEW YORK - Three years into being a business owner, Becky Davis knew she needed to break the hold technology had on her.

Davis, a marketing and management consultant to other small business owners, was so immersed in emails, texts and social media that she was getting only four or five hours of sleep a night and her husband said he felt invisible. It also hurt her productivity - she'd get distracted reading people's posts and realize she'd lost two hours of work time.

So you’re ready to include more whole grains in your diet, and you reasonably want to start with your daily bread (and crackers, and granola bars, and other grain-based snacks). When you consider that most U.S. adults only get half the recommended amount of daily fiber, opting for the bread that says "whole grain" or "high fiber" or "whole wheat" seems like a sage choice. And it is, if you know what to look for. The trouble is, it's easy to get duped.

Computers can classify skin cancers as successfully as human experts, according to the latest research attempting to apply artificial intelligence to health.

The US-based researchers say the new system, which is based on image recognition, could be developed for smartphones, increasing access to screening and providing a low-cost way to check whether skin lesions are cause for concern.

You can be a good data scientist by sitting at your computer. After all, the job description involves poring through huge quantities of often disparate data to find insights that may prove helpful in every aspect of a business, including marketing, logistics, and human resources. It also includes cleaning data, dealing with gaps, and sifting through incomplete poor definitions.

Pour lire cet article en français, cliquez ici. The Canadian tech community comprises many different nationalities, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities, mental and physical abilities, and perspectives. We believe that this diversity is a source of strength and opportunity.

On this topic, we are united.

Canadian tech companies understand the power of inclusion and diversity of thought, and that talent and skill know no borders. In choosing to hire, train, and mentor the best people in the world, we can build global companies that grow our economy. By embracing diversity, we can drive innovation to benefit the world.

This week my research was moving around issues of complexity within innovation and I came across a great paper, written by Deborah Dougherty, Organizing for innovation in complex innovation systems. Although she is addressing within this paper the bigger more complex social and economic challenges we are facing in healthcare, alternative energy, water scarcity, climate management, poverty and economic revitalization, she is attempting to reframe these into problem resolutions from breaking down discovery into four distinct channels. I liked this thinking.

Legacy companies like Apple, Xerox and IBM have transformed their organizations over the past 30 years to stay competitive in an ever-evolving market. This kind of transformational change is not easy for any organization, small or large. In fact, 70% of all change efforts fail. So what can you do to improve your odds of success? One of the most critical factors for transforming innovation results is bold executive leadership encompassing three key leadership pillars essential for any change effort.

The coming $1.1 billion acquisition of CoverMyMeds LLC – Ohio's first tech startup " unicorn" – is a huge win for the Ohio Third Frontier program.

McKesson Corp., one of the three biggest U.S. health-care products distributors, announced Wednesday it would acquire the fast-growing Columbus software maker in a deal that could grow to $1.37 billion depending on its financial performance over the next two years.

Within a decade, our living spaces will be enhanced by a host of new devices and technologies, performing a range of household functions and redefining what it means to feel at home.

The promise of devices that not only meet our household needs but anticipate them as well has been around for decades. To date, that promise remains largely unfulfilled. Advances such as the Nest thermostat by Alphabet (parent company to Google) and Amazon’s Alexa personal assistant are notable, but the home-technology market as a whole remains fragmented, and the potential for a truly smart home is still unrealized.

This week, Scott Purcell of FundAmerica provided his take on a report released by the SEC on Regulation A. Tracking all campaigns and funds raised through Q3 of last year, the report had a lot of insight, especially for those who’ve drank enough Kool-Aid to consider launching what many are calling a “mini IPO” in place of a real IPO.

After reading through Purcell’s highlights and some other choice reading materials from last week, those of us at Crowdfunding 360 thought it would be worth putting together our own Reg A review to analyze what it would take to kick off one of these deals and make it worth an issuer’s time and expense.

arching for the next generation of business leaders represents one of the biggest headaches for any organization. Most, in our experience, rely on development programs that rotate visible high fliers, emphasizing the importance of leadership attributes such as integrity, collaboration, a results-driven orientation, and customer-oriented behavior. Many, understandably, also look outside the organization to fill key roles despite the costs and potential risks of hiring cultural misfits.

Google salaries for new graduates w/a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science from a good school are $170k, all-in. Here is a full break-down by compensation component, as well as the main drivers of value:

Distorting the truth without actually lying has a name: paltering. We all do it, and according to a new Harvard University study, most of us feel better about paltering than flat-out lying. But before you give yourself a free pass, know that this type of deception is viewed by others just as harshly as a straight-up lie, and can seriously hurt your reputation if people catch on.

HONG KONG — You might call it a Noah’s Ark for an era of melting polar ice sheets.

An audacious plan to respond to climate change by building a city of floating islands in the South Pacific is moving forward, with the government of French Polynesia agreeing to consider hosting the islands in a tropical lagoon.

The project is being put forward by a California nonprofit, the Seasteading Institute, which has raised about $2.5 million from more than 1,000 interested donors. Randolph Hencken, the group’s executive director, said work on the project could start in French Polynesia as early as next year, pending the results of some environmental and economic feasibility studies.

Image: A rendering of the artificial floating island project in French Polynesia. The project is being put forward by a California nonprofit, the Seasteading Institute, which has raised about $2.5 million from more than 1,000 interested donors. Credit Seasteading Institute

For a moment, simplify the purpose of startup to one act: the transfer of belief. From founder to herself. From founder to startup. From startup to investor. From startup to market. That last transfer of conviction proves to be one of the most tenuous. According to a three-year study on startup mortality, most startups fail after having raised $1.3 million and around 20 months after their last financing round. Of course, many factors contribute to those failures, but it goes to show how treacherous of a stretch it can be for startups seeking to pave a path to market.