Month: December 2007

Amazon fails at REST

Designing in side-effects to GET requests is a fundamental mistake of web development that people who don’t understand the web/http tend to make. It’s less common now than it used to be, but I’m suprised to see it in a web API from one the biggest web properties and doubly surprised to see it called “REST”.

what is it with amazons infatuation with SOAP? how can they be a web company yet develop such lousy “API”s?

DNA sample dry storage

The firm has simulated long-term storage equivalent to 13 years at room temperature, by applying higher temperatures than samples would normally endure. Such storage costs 33% as much as freezing the samples would. And when a sample is needed for analysis, you just add water, à la Sea Monkey. The market for this sort of thing is potentially huge. In contrast with the impression given by “CSI”, a popular crime series, DNA analysis is not something that takes a glamorous technician a few minutes in a moodily lit room. The FBI alone has a backlog of more than 200K unprocessed DNA samples from convicted criminals (85% of the samples it has collected during the past 6 years). This number has almost doubled in the past year, yet it may grow even faster in the future since what was once a procedure required only for sex offenders has now become obligatory for a range of felons from murderers to drug-addicts. Moreover, starting next year, both the federal authorities and a number of states will cast an even wider net by collecting DNA from everyone they arrest (as now happens in Britain). That will swell the haul of samples by at least 500K specimens a year.

a way to conserve biological material by drying. to revert, just add water.

The etiquette of telecommunications

ON A May evening in 1864, several British politicians were disturbed by a knock at the door and the delivery of a telegram—a most unusual occurrence at such a late hour. Had war broken out? Had the queen been taken ill? They ripped open the envelopes and were surprised to find a message relating not to some national calamity, but to dentistry. Messrs Gabriel, of 27 Harley Street, advised that their dental practice would be open from 10-17 until October. Infuriated, some of the recipients of this unsolicited message wrote to the Times. “I have never had any dealings with Messrs Gabriel,” thundered one of them, “and beg to know by what right do they disturb me by a telegram which is simply the medium of advertisement?” The Times helpfully reprinted the offending telegram, providing its senders with further free publicity. This was, notes Matthew Sweet, a historian, the first example of what is known today as “spam”.

the history of spam, and other communication faux pas. excellent

Microdosing

By examining these samples for the presence of radiocarbon, the developer of a particular drug can see whether the active ingredients are absorbed into the body and, if they are, how long they persist there. If they do get absorbed and then persist, the drug is probably worth developing further. If not, then it can be abandoned before any more expensive tests are conducted. And by using people rather than experimental animals for the tests, the researchers can be confident that the results are applicable to humans.

using spectrometers to track tiny doses of new compounds to find out if they can cross the blood / brain barrier, for instance. should speed up pharma r&d quite a bit.

Playing tag

But to those building so-called “mobile” social networks, it is nirvana, linking virtual communities such as Facebook or MySpace with the real world. The idea is not new, but so far such services have not gained much traction. They have to be able to pinpoint people in order to work, but satellite positioning does not work indoors. More importantly, it is hard for such a service to gain critical mass: why join, if it does not already have many users?

A new generation of mobile social networks may have found ways to overcome these barriers. One is Aka-Aki, a start-up based in Berlin. Users of its service download a small program onto their mobile phone. The software then uses Bluetooth, the short-range radio technology built into many mobile phones, to check whether any friends or other members with similar interests are within 20m. If so, the program pulls down the person’s picture and whatever information he or she is willing to reveal from the firm’s website.

Where the economist gets all headmap.

Ineffective Charities

So, what are the 6 keys to success?

1st, advocate and serve. High impact NGOs soon realize that simply delivering a good service is not enough; they need to campaign for political action if they really want to drive massive social change.

2nd, make markets work. The great nonprofits do not rely on traditional giving; they work with market forces, generating income where possible, working with for-profit businesses to help them “do well by doing good”.

3rd, inspire evangelists. Volunteers are not just a source of money and effort; they can be turned into highly effective advocates for the non-profit’s cause. The best non-profits turn their volunteers into strong communities.

4th, nurture non-profit networks. Although many non-profits talk about collaboration, few do much of it in practice. That is their loss. The best non-profits, Ms Crutchfield and Ms Grant explain, “freely share wealth, expertise, talent, and power with their peers, not because they are saints but because it is in their self-interest to do so.”

5th, master the art of adaptation. The best nonprofits are serial innovators, constantly adapting what they do to changing circumstances. They have made mistakes, and occasionally flopped, along the way, but they have sustained their impact and stayed relevant because, “unlike many non-profits, they have also mastered the ability to listen, learn, and modify their approach based on external cues.”

6th, share leadership. Many social entrepreneurs are a bit like a combination of Louis XIV, who said “L’état—c’est moi” and Louis XV, who warned, “Après moi, le deluge”. Differentiating the social entrepreneur from the organisation he creates is often difficult. In such cases, the organisation tends to collapse when the entrepreneur leaves.

Research on what makes an effective NGO