Every time your items are rung up at the grocery store, a technology is used that was first patented 48 years ago. Several decades after the first barcode patent was issued, it began its use in stores and hasn’t evolved much since. Your bog-standard one-dimensional barcode (1D barcode) consists of vertical lines that contain 20-25 […]
Even the Americans can be forgiven for not knowing much about a little-visited European country called Belarus. Often referred to as the “lungs of Europe,” 40% of the country is covered in forests through which European bison roam – the inspiration for the delicious “bison grass vodka.” It’s a shame that not many people visit Belarus […]
When evaluating the merits of tech stocks, we like to focus on the exposure investors receive to any particular theme. This is often measured by revenues that can be attributed to the theme as a percentage of total revenues. For example, we looked at how Teradyne has been slowly expanding into industrial robotics. Over time, it’s […]
When you walk into the hospital to receive surgery, you may be walking out with more than you bargained for. Studies show thousands of instances where surgeons leave foreign objects in people’s bodies following surgery. An article by Thought.co on the topic estimates that 4,500 to 6,000 incidents of this type happen every year in the […]
What does it say about human beings that we find spectacular failure far more exciting and entertaining than steady success? Take the example of the blood-testing startup Theranos, which has spawned both an award-winning book and an upcoming movie starring Jennifer Lawrence as the turtleneck sweater-wearing bloodsucker, Elizabeth Holmes, who has the temerity to seek […]
Every entrepreneur out there who has tried to get a business off the ground knows how important execution is. Someone else can take your exact same idea, execute on it better than you, and put you out of business. One way to keep other people from using your idea is to have some intellectual property (IP) that […]
Tech billionaire Peter Thiel famously said, “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.” The comment obviously refers to how technological promises often fall short of expectations. While there are plenty of companies building flying cars (or, as we call them, helicopters), his point is a valid one. Take the example of the behemoth […]
Whenever an exciting disruptive technology like augmented reality (AR) starts to catch the attention of retail investors, the pundits immediately feel compelled to start saying something about what stocks you should buy. A cursory look at the Motley Fool article on “Augmented Reality Stocks: What to Watch in 2018” says you should “play the long […]
We first took a look at technology for the blind in our article on 6 Vision Enhancement Devices You Need to See where we covered some pretty cool applications of technology that gives the 342 million blind people around the globe more freedom. We were surprised to learn that only about 10-15% of people who are blind or visually […]
“Help me Obi Wan Kanobi. You’re my only hope.” Anyone who has seen the original Star Wars Movies would probably think about this scene when someone brings up hologram technology. You’re probably wondering in today’s day and age of self gene-editing, where all the holograms are? Also known as holography, we like to define this […]