Recorded Future: Technology of the Future

Recorded Future Inc. is a software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that has the mission and technology to analyze what the world and people know about the future. As such, it specializes in web intelligence and predictive analysis. Recorded Future uses what they call a temporal analytics engine. Basically, the company provides analysis and forecasting tools that help analysts predict and record future events based on scanned Internet sources. The information are then extracted, measured, and visualized to show patterns and networks between the past, present, and eventually, the future.

Founded by Christopher Ahlberg in 2008, Recorded Future has received investments from Google and the CIA through their investment bodies, Google Ventures and In-Q-Tel. Aside from its Cambridge headquarters, it also has an office in Gothenburg, Sweden. Its customers include Fortune 500 company, various financial institutions, and government agencies across the world. It is said that its revenues reach over $100 million annually.

VSee and the Convenience of Their Video Services

VSee Lab, LLC is a technological company that aims to largely contribute in the creation of a commute-free world. They do this by making remote working as simple and satisfying as if people meet in person. Their main service, VSee, is a tool that allows secure peer-to-peer video collaboration. It is designed to make remote work more productive and in one way or another, less lonely. It permits multi-party video calling or chat, file transfer, and application sharing –all in one simple tool that can work on any network.

The proprietary low bandwidth screen sharing and group video chat software tool is a product of a Stanford University PhD project which aimed to address the issue of making remote working for teams easier. It also helps in conveying trust via video. It allows a number of users located in different places to communicate with real-time audio and video. The tool sends video at rates as low as 50 kbit/s, thus, anyone can enjoy its benefits even with the use of 3G cellular signals.

The company, VSee Lab, LLC was founded by Dr. Milton Chen. His thesis entitled Conveying Conversational Cues Through Video resulted in the development of the tool. In 2008, VSee became a C corporation, assuming the name VSee Lab, Inc.

It was also in 2008 when VSee received investment funding from In-Q-Tel. They also garnered an award from the National Science Foundation. Meanwhile, in 2010, VSee received investment from Salesforce. In 2012, the company has released their secure instant messaging tool which was also approved by the US congress for usage behind their firewall.

VSee’s Board of Directors includes James Gibbons, former Stanford University Dean of Engineering; William Perry, former Defense Secretary; and Milton Chen, XMPP author. Some of its client companies include Kaiser Permanente, Shell, and IBM. Their service is also used by the US Congress and the Navy SEALs, as well as celebrities Angelina Jolie and Mandy Moore, among others.

Smart Telecom: Providing Cost-Efficient Telecom Services in Ireland

With the cost of living the way it is today, it’s small wonder that more and more people are turning to companies that can provide them with cost-efficient solutions to everyday problems without sacrificing reliability and quality. Smart Telecom of Ireland has made this their mission since the company was founded in 2000. Based in Dublin, Smart Telecom provides broadband and landline telecommunications services, coming in third among Ireland’s telecom companies in terms of size.

Smart Telecom currently offers the only Next Generation Network in the country, allowing for greater, faster speeds, more reliability and flexibility and of course, value for money. Smart offers voice, data and video services using more advanced technologies, employing less cumbersome equipment as opposed to their competitors. Headed by Brendan Murtagh and John Riordan, Smart Telecom has been under negotiation with Digiweb regarding an acquisition by the latter, but has maintained its level of customer service and relations.

The John B. Stetson Company and the Quintessential Cowboy Hat

Who doesn’t know what a Stetson is? Anyone who has ever watched a Western movie, read a book or magazine featuring the Wild West or basically heard of cowboys knows what a Stetson is: the famous cowboy hat, manufactured by the John B. Stetson Company and made famous through popular culture and mainstream media. The Stetson has been dubbed “the Hat of the West”.

John B. Stetson founded the company in 1865 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Having a hat that he himself had made during an expedition to the West, Stetson decided to mass-produce the hats. Featuring a high crown and wide, flat brim, Stetson’s hat was a massive hit, and soon became the prototype for all other cowboy hats. The hats, simply called Stetsons, soon found a large following and the rest, as the catchphrase goes, is history. Stetson celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1965 with the release of a booklet called “The Stetson Century” in which the company’s president remarked that, “America grew up under a Stetson.” While the company has since diversified from just making hats to making men and women’s garments and footwear, accessories, fragrances and even bourbon, the Stetson company channels what it calls the “authentic American spirit” in all of its products.

Until today, the Stetson is associated with Western America and has become an integral part of the cowboy culture. In fact, the Stetson has reached iconic status, having been worn by the likes of actors who personified Western pride and bravery in films, like John Wayne and Clayton Moore, not to mention modern-day musicians like Garth Brooks, Gene Autry, even Trisha Yearwood and actress Annie Oakley. Larry Hagman’s Stetson, which he wore as J.R. Ewing on the television show “Dallas” is on display at no less than the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s Americana exhibit.

Rovio Entertainment: Success Story that Relied on Angry Birds

Rovio Entertainment is an entertainment media company that changed the industry because of its globally successful creation known as Angry Birds. The Angry Birds, which has become a worldwide phenomenon, is now the all-time number one paid application. Using different kinds of platforms, Rovio has created seven other blockbuster games aside from Angry Birds: Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Star Wars, Angry Birds Friends, Bad Piggies, and Amazing Alex.

Angry Birds has become one of the world’s most loved media entertainment brands. Because of Rovio’s successes in publishing and licensing, its headquarters in Finland now has employed over 500 employees aside from hundreds others in China, Sweden and the US.

Like technology, Rovio understands that the entertainment industry is fast paced, that’s why the company brings in new talents on a regular basis. Rovio has existing cooperation with leading universities in providing training programs to attract young people to show what they’ve got. Its culture of open organization shows that Rovio is willing to welcome new ideas that will improve all levels of gaming experience.

OpenGamma: Unified Financial Analytics

OpenGamma is a London-based real-time risk management technology platform provider. The OpenGamma Platform helps financial institutions in improving their analytics calculation. Its open architecture allows transparency and a more unified approach that will consequently enhance accuracy, quality and timeliness of data and the growing capabilities of in-house IT.

OpenGamma’s innovative platform is a combination of cloud computing and open source. The company modeled how cloud computing can change the way software entrepreneurs look for new technology software and solutions. When Elaine McLeod, Kirk Wylie and Jim Moores established the company in 2009, rumors spread that OpenGamma is venturing into the financial services market. London is known to be a place where established financial companies thrive and it is not a good idea for a new company to enter a lucrative industry like the financial market. However, OpenGamma has a different approach in an otherwise conservative industry.

As the company’s primary product, OpenGamma Platform provides its clients with the opportunity to take advantage of SaaS and cloud computing. The product can also be used in a model to allow a few components to run in the client’s data center. Since the platform is open source, it can be customized and designed in such a way that external software developers can modify the source code.

Any web browser can access the platform. Batch risk reports may be opened using PDF or MS Excel formats. OpenGamma’s platform has been designed to make us of the reference data provided by the customers. The platform is equipped with functionalities such as encrypted data storage and transfer.

Some companies view open source solutions as tricky but government agencies all around the world have been using OpenGamma Platform. Its open software nature offers an interesting option for the growing industry of financial services.

OpenGamma went through two rounds of funding activities. Series A funds were provided by Accel partners in 2009 and series B funds were provided by FirstMark capital a few years later.

Farrah Gray: From Rags to Becoming One of the Most Influential Men in America

Farrah Gray started to show his interest in entrepreneurship when he first sold hand-painted rocks. Growing in the inner-city Chicago in the 80s, Farrah was used to a life that many may call unfortunate. As written in his book titled “Reallionaire,” he grew accustomed to moments when the only thing in their fridge was the light that came on when the door is opened.

Dr. Farrah Gray was hailed as one of the most influential black men in America by the National Urban League. Meanwhile, Ebony Magazine and Black Enterprise have considered him as a best-selling author and an entrepreneurial icon. Being raised in a not so well-off family and neighborhood, Farrah defied the odds even if it were against him at the time, and became a millionaire at a young age of 14. By the age of 21, he was given an Honorary Doctorate degree of Humane Letters by Allen University. This is due to his distinguished commitment to developing values among people including leadership and integrity. He was also recognized for having an ingenious economic mind.

Clyde & Co.: The Rich History and Merger with Yet Another Great Firm

Clyde & Co. is among the biggest international firms in the world. It was founded by Richard Arthur Clyde who came from a distinguished family, known for their legal works. Their family has in fact produced two Lords President of the Court Session in Scotland over the last century. Meanwhile, late Lord Clyde of Briglands, Richard Clyde’s nephew, was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1996 until 2001.

Richard Clyde’s earliest record of being a solicitor in independent practice can be traced back in 1928. However, it was in 1933 that he has set up his own office in the heart of the insurance district of the city of London, after he left his job as an assistant solicitor with a renowned firm. With his new office, he was able to attract instructions from different well-known companies. In just a matter of time, he has built a partnership with Maurice Hill, a member of the founding family that established Hill Dickinson & Co.

To fulfill its international outlook, the first overseas office of Clyde & Co. was opened in Hong Kong. After this feat, many others followed, and they opened offices in the Middle East, North America, Asia, and Europe.

In 1966, Michael Payton joined the firm and became Senior Partner in 1984. He led a process that did not only focus on expansion but mainly on diversification. He brought the firm’s first batch of non-contentious company lawyers. This broadened the scope of the firm from its former concentration that was insurance and marine litigation. Indeed, success has become Clyde & Co.’s loyal partner.

On November 1, 2011, Clyde & Co. merged with Barlow Lyde & Gilbert. The combined firm, with focus on international trade and insurance, proudly presents unique, renewed strengths. It is considered as one of the top dispute resolution practices with global coverage. The firm also offers unrivalled in-depth sector expertise and focus across both transactional and non-contentious disciplines.

Sistema Biobolsa: Churning Farm Waste to New Form of Energy

Sistema Biobolsa is a business that produces a pre-fabricated agricultural waste digester.  It is a technology that is able to convert the farm waste to methane-rich renewable energy and to organic compost.  Sistema Biobolsa is not just about the physical technology of the digester but it also carries a technology which educates its users and has a monitoring system to make sure that the machine is being used correctly and is able to bring the value-additions that the company wants to offer.  Also included in Sistema Biobolsa’s services is a finance system that will help their customers get subsidy from the government or other agencies who are interested to help the farmers as well as to contribute to the global effort of decreasing emission of greenhouse gases.

The over-all strategy of Sistema Biobolsa is to provide high-quality machinery, capacitating its clientele in operating their machine, find a way for farmers and communities to afford their products and be able to have a databank that can use as basis for their company’s improvement.

The Simplicity and Artistic History of Moleskine

“To lose a passport was the least of one’s worries: to lose a notebook was a catastrophe.”  This line is from Bruce Chatwin’s The Songlines.  The relationship of a writer, a painter, a poet, or even a non-artist who scribbles thoughts and feelings to her notebook could become valuable and, indeed, strong that when she loses it, it becomes a disaster.  The bond between Chatwin and his notebooks is not only reflected in this line but also when, in the same book, he reminisced about a Parisian stationery shop where he used to buy these notebooks described as “a black, oilcloth-covered notebook, its pages held in place with an elastic band,”   This same kind that was used by the likes of Pablo Neruda, Henri Matisse, Ernest Hemingway and even Vincent van Gogh.  The notebook did not have a name at the time when these great artists were using them.  It is in Chatwin’s reminiscing that the notebook was given a name, Moleskine, when he asked the stationer for more supplies but was told that, “The real Moleskine is no more.”

It is through this book that a publisher from Milan, Italy called Modo&Modo SpA trademarked the name Moleskine in 1997 and since then produced not just the traditional black notebook but also in variety of colors and sizes.  It used to be filled with blank pages but now, there are ruled and squared notebooks.  Moleskine also issues photo books, photo albums, diaries and planners.  They have limited edition collections such as “The Hobbit,” “The Little Prince,” and “Peanuts.”

The materials used for the Moleskine paper products are acid-free and is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.  They support the non-profit foundation, lettera27, whose objective is championing universal right to education and access to knowledge around the world especially the places that need it the most.

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