Troubleshooting is an effective way to fix technical problems--but more importantly, you can apply the same techniques to your career and colleagues as well.

What do you do when your computer won’t connect to the Internet? What do you do when your washing machine stops mid-cycle or the TV remote stops working? Besides tearing your hair out or going postal, there actually some constructive options. One is to troubleshoot the problem.

Troubleshooting denotes a methodical, systematic approach to isolating, identifying, and then fixing the problem. Turns out the same techniques that help technicians repair electronics, home appliances, and cars can help us streamline daily dealings with family, friends, and work colleagues as well. When things aren’t going right with relationships, troubleshooting the problem may be the most efficient way to make things right. So here is how you can apply the six steps of troubleshooting to your everyday life.

Nuremberg, Germany, November 12, 2012:capmatch medical, the new European funding network for life sciences, has launched its online management tool www.capmatch-medical.com today. capmatch medical is a highly customized service specifically designed to connect life science companies that are seeking capital with respective investors in Europe. Unique advantages of capmatch medical are a high quality matching approach combined with professional coaching and process management. The operators of capmatch medical are the financing experts of netzwerk nordbayern, a Nuremberg based business and networking organization providing a comprehensive range of services for high-tech companies, in cooperation with Medical Valley EMN e.V. - a renowned German Med-Tech cluster located in Erlangen, Bavaria. In 135 single deals, almost 175 million euros of venture and business angel capital has been invested, initiated and supported by netzwerk nordbayern since 1999 - among them 35 life science deals with almost 63 million euros.

Personalized deal flow is provided to respective investors according to their current investment strategy. Entrepreneurs gain the unique opportunity to present their business models to a carefully selected group of specialized life science investors ready to invest, plus professional coaching and process management by the team of capmatch medical and netzwerk nordbayern.

Device: Researchers have for the first time harvested the energy of the inner ear to power a small sensing device. The electric potential of the cochlea operates like a biological battery and is critical for transforming sound pressure waves into the electrical signals sent to the brain. Now, scientists have developed a chip that can harness this electrical energy without interfering with normal hearing, according to their report, published today (November 11) in Nature Biotechnology.

The strategy is “original,” said Michael Holzinger, a chemist at Université Joseph Fourier in France, who was not involved in the project. Many other devices designed to extract power from living organisms use enzymes to convert catalytic energy into electrical energy, but the new chip “just steals a little bit of energy the body produces itself.”

Google Ventures got an early Christmas present, scoring $1.5 billion in new funds from parent Google to bankroll start-ups through 2017.

Serving as Google’s corporate investing arm since 2009 Google Ventures GOOG +0.32% invests in virtually every stage and sector from health care and energy to mobile and consumer Internet companies.  Investing for financial–not strategic–reasons, Google Ventures previously invested $200 million a year in companies including online vacation rental site HomeAway (now public) , energy company Nest Labs and personal genetics company 23andMe.

Announced in a tweet during a Thursday gathering of 100 or so of its portfolio companies at the Googleplex, the $100 million annual increase gives the firm extra gunpowder to fuel growth in existing portfolio companies and scout for new, later stage deals.

It used to be that the telephone book was one of the only ways to gather personal information, such as phone numbers or addresses, about other people.

Today, the Internet has opened up new avenues. Nearly every shred of a person's personal details is on the Internet in some form or another.

Today marks the official opening of Global Entrepreneurship Week, now celebrated in 131 countries. Throughout this week, roughly 25,000 partner organizations will be actively engaged in holding 35,000 events, activities and competitions--engaging more than 7 million participants and equipping them with the skills and connections to take the next step in their entrepreneurial journey. But GEW is more than just a celebration, it is attracting new talent to the field and supplementing grassroots startup energy with top down endorsements that legitimize entrepreneurship.

In October, French crowdfunding platform WiSEED marked the first crowdfunding success for the biotech industry when it rewarded 200 initial small investors with a profitable exit. WiSEED, an online collective investment platform dedicated to biotech startups located in Toulouse, helped antibacterial drug discovery firm ANTABIO based in Labège raise seed funding from indi…

At the turn of the 20th century, cholera, typhoid fever and other waterborne diseases killed thousands of U.S. residents annually. The main culprit: drinking water.

In the 1920s, Abel Wolman, a Johns Hopkins School of Engineering graduate who was working in the Maryland Health Department, developed the modern process for chlorinating drinking water to kill harmful bacteria. Later, as a Johns Hopkins faculty member, he would oversee the planning and construction of modern municipal and national water supplies, set bacterial standards for drinking water, and advise 50 foreign countries on safe water processes.

What had been a huge source of deaths dropped to nearly nothing after the methods of Abel Wolman were introduced. Over the decades, he might have saved millions.

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Johns Hopkins University is renowned for its commitment to education, research and service in promoting discovery and dissemination of advances to improve health for individuals throughout the world. For over a century, JHU has been the leading university institution facilitating and promoting global health throughout the world. The faculty of the University have developed and harnessed new technologies that have improved the lives of many populations and literally saved millions of lives over the years.

With recent developments in technology transfer, patent law and licensing of new technologies, President Daniels convened a committee consisting of faculty members of the JHU Center for Global Health along with faculty representing the Advisory Board for Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer to examine the current policies of the University in promoting and accelerating the use and dissemination of new technologies to improve the lives of individuals throughout the world, but particularly where financial resources for health may be limited. Given the importance that Johns Hopkins researchers have placed on research, discovery and contributions to the field of global health, President Daniels charged the committee with reviewing the technology transfer policies with a focus on rapid dissemination of technologies that could advance the field of global health particularly for disadvantaged people.

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It is all too common in 2012 that entrepreneurs and business owners have a great company that is making a profit in difficult economic times, and yet the traditional financial institutions reject an application for a loan. Reasons for needing the loan vary from buying more stock to increasing marketing expenditure to buying bigger premises.

This isn’t just a problem in the USA or the UK, but worldwide. As banks try to purge their balance sheets of toxic debts, rules of lending have become more stringent, and even a business with a great credit rating may struggle to get the go-ahead from its lender.

I've been doing a lot of thinking these days about "culture of innovation" -- trying to get down to the root of what the heck it's all about.

It's easy to wax poetic about the topic (and a lot of people do), but too much of the stuff I've been reading sounds like bad advertising copy for motherhood and apple pie.

The cover of ShortList, a weekly men’s magazine in the UK, took on a uniquely interactive quality this week thanks to Blippar.

Using Blippar’s augmented reality app for iPhone or Android devices, readers can scan the arcade game-style art on the cover to bring a fully playable version to life on their phones, as shown in the video above. Elsewhere in the issue, readers can use the app to pull up extra slideshows, vote in polls, take quizzes and more.

If you are an entrepreneur or small business owner who does not have good personal credit but you need a small business loan of some kind to start, build, or grow your business then there’s good and bad news for you.

We’re really not here to talk about the bad news because you already know the bad news.  It’s tough – some would say impossible – to get financing when your personal credit is “not so great.”  After all, it’s been tough enough since The Great Recession for people with “good” credit to get financing.

Just to clarify, we’re talking about debt financing and not equity financing.  This post will not cover equity financing options such as venture capital, private equity, angel investors, or the three F’s (friends/family/fools).

The Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2012 presented by the European Commission and that compares 190 European regions shows that there is considerable diversity in regional innovation performance not only across Europe but also within the Member States. Most of the European countries have regions at different levels of innovation performance. The report also shows how in almost all European countries capital regions are the national innovation leaders.

The Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2012 which provides a comparative assessment of how European regions perform with regard to innovation, was published by the European Commission. This Scoreboard is based on the methodology of the Innovation Union Scoreboard, and covers 190 regions across the European Union, Croatia, Norway and Switzerland. In February 2012, the Innovation Union Scoreboard 2011 showed that enterprises must boost innovation within the EU. According to the report, there are 41 regions in the first group of "innovation leaders", 58 regions belong to the second group of "innovation followers", 39 regions are "moderate innovators" and 52 regions are in the fourth group of "modest innovators".

Congratulations, you just sealed the deal on fresh capital for your startup. You’ve also just raised the bar on expectations and increased the pressure to perform.

Are you ready?

Most CEOs and founders already know how this new capital will be used, and assuming they have a high degree of confidence that the funding will close, they can get started on putting it to work ahead of time.

Here are some other high-level action items that should be on every to-do list in those crucial first three months:

1. Celebrate victories: Not in an expensive way, but in a team-building way. Share the news with your employees. Explain the potential and also share the credit, ensuring everyone is aligned and pulling 100 percent toward the same goals. This is a great way to reward and recognize the hard work of your team and to excite them at a time when everyone needs step up.

It goes by many names these days: Machine-to-machine communications; the Internet of Things; the Industrial Internet; even just “wireless sensors.” In short, M2M is the technology that enables the automated exchange of key information between machines, and then ultimately to humans.

With seemingly endless applications that range from mere entertainment (say, streaming video to the backseat of your car) to matters of life and death (like the ability for doctors to remotely monitor blood glucose levels), M2M technology is already rapidly changing the way that we live for the better. The M2M revolution is threatened, however, by two crucial and already pressing challenges: unnecessary complexity and the impending sunset of 2G wireless.

Questions were asked by Starter League students, and the discussion was moderated by Neal Sales-Griffin. Below is a paraphrased collection of Jason’s answers.

Learning Rails has taught me how to be a better communicator with people. It’s humbling trying to tell a computer to do something, because computers don’t know anything, and you have to tell them absolutely everything.

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia economic development officials have launched a mobile app to help bring business to the state.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership says the “YesVA” app is a new, innovative tool aimed at bringing jobs and investments to Virginia.

The app allows economic developers, clients and consultants to perform site and building searches, and compare Virginia to other states from a mobile device.

Everyone in the business world has heard of the old bestseller by Geoffrey A. Moore titled “Crossing the Chasm,” but most entrepreneurs have no idea how it relates to them. In fact, it’s all about the “focus” required to get early stage technology products across the deadly chasm from early adopters to mainstream customers.

Most investors and startup professionals expand this concept of focus to apply to key issues of every aspect of strategic and tactical planning in a startup. Missions and products that are too broad confuse your team, your customers, and potential investors. There are other chasms out there just as deadly as the technology one, such as the ones below:

Resveratrol, a compound found commonly in grape skins and red wine, has been shown to have several beneficial effects on human health, including cardiovascular health and stroke prevention. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has discovered that the compound can make prostate tumor cells more susceptible to radiation treatment, increasing the chances of a full recovery from all types of prostate cancer, including aggressive tumors.

“Other studies have noted that resveratrol made tumor cells more susceptible to chemotherapy, and we wanted to see if it had the same effect for radiation therapy,” said Michael Nicholl, an assistant professor of surgical oncology in the MU School of Medicine. “We found that when exposed to the compound, the tumor cells were more susceptible to radiation treatment, but that the effect was greater than just treating with both compounds separately.”