Jack Dorsey

In our  previous posts, we spoke about Reid Hoffmann and Mark Zuckerberg.

This one’s dedicated to the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey (Jack on Twitter). Dorsey is an American software architect and businessperson best known as the creator of Twitter. BusinessWeek called him one of technology’s “best and brightest.” MIT’s Technology Review named him in the TR35, an outstanding innovator under the age of 35.

For those who have still not started Tweeting, Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 charactersdisplayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers.

Jack Dorsey introduced the idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group, a concept partially inspired by the SMS group messaging service TXTMob. This is what he had to say:

The working name was just “Status” for a while. It actually didn’t have a name. We were trying to name it, and mobile was a big aspect of the product early on … We liked the SMS aspect, and how you could update from anywhere and receive from anywhere.We wanted to capture that in the name—we wanted to capture that feeling: the physical sensation that you’re buzzing your friend’s pocket. It’s like buzzing all over the world. So we did a bunch of name-storming, and we came up with the word “twitch,” because the phone kind of vibrates when it moves. But “twitch” is not a good product name because it doesn’t bring up the right imagery. So we looked in the dictionary for words around it, and we came across the word “twitter,” and it was just perfect. The definition was “a short burst of inconsequential information,” and “chirps from birds.” And that’s exactly what the product was.

The first prototype was an internal service for Odeo employees. By the end of 2007, about 500,000 tweets per quarter were posted. By the end of 2008, 100 million tweets per quarter were posted. By the end of 2009, 2 billion tweets per quarter were posted. In the first quarter of 2010, 4 billion tweets per quarter were posted.

Ernest Archdeacon

Ernest Archdeacon (1863 – 1950) was a prominent French lawyer of Irish descent who was associated with pioneering

all forms of aviation in France before the First World War. He made his first balloon flight at the age of 20. He commissioned a copy of the 1902 Wright No. 3 glider but had only limited success.  He was regarded as France’s foremost promoter and sponsor of aviation, offering prizes (Coupe d’Aviation Ernest Archdeacon and the Deutsch de la Meurthe-Archdeacon prize), commissioning designs, developing theoretical knowledge, plus organising tests and events.

His lasting contribution to aviation is the Aéro-Club de France, the oldest aero-club in the world, which he co-founded in 1898 before powered flight.

In 1906 he commissioned a ‘propeller on a motorcycle’, the Archdeacon Aéromotocyclette Anzani which achieved a timed speed of 79.5 kilometres per hour at Achères-la-Forêt. This ‘Aéromotocyclette’, based on a ‘Buchet’ motorcycle, was equipped with a 6 horsepower Anzani engine driving a propeller mounted on a 1.5 m (5 ft) steel tube. There is no evidence that he applied for a patent.

He is also remembered as the first aeroplane passenger in Europe, having taken a 1241m flight in 1908.

William Spooner

Ever heard of the term “Spoonerism”? No! Then read these

fighting a liar
you hissed my mystery lecture
cattle ships and bruisers
nosey little cook
a blushing crow
tons of soil

William Spooner

So what’s wrong with these sentences? Well, in isolation, they are all correct, but this was not the intended usage. Have a look at the table now.

fighting a liar	lighting a fire
you hissed my mystery lecture	you missed my history lecture
cattle ships and bruisers	battle ships and cruisers
nosey little cook	cosy little nook
a blushing crow	a crushing blow
tons of soil	sons of toil

The intended usage is on right. This problem of switching words is called Spoonerism. It refers to the linguistic flip-flops that turn “a well-oiled bicycle” into “a well-boiled icicle” and other ludicrous ways speakers of English get their mix all talked up.

Born in 1844 in London, Spooner became an Anglican priest and a scholar. During a 60-year association with Oxford University, he lectured in history, philosophy, and divinity. From 1876 to 1889, he served as a Dean, and from 1903 to 1924 as Warden, or president. Spooner was an albino, small, with a pink face, poor eyesight, and a head too large for his body. His reputation was that of a genial, kindly, hospitable man. He seems also to have been something of an absent-minded professor.

Some more spoonerisms here

know your blows	blow your nose
go and shake a tower	go and take a shower
tease my ears	ease my tears
nicking your pose	picking your nose
you have very mad banners	you have very bad manners
lack of pies	pack of lies
it’s roaring with pain	it’s pouring with rain
sealing the hick	healing the sick
go help me sod	so help me God
pit nicking	nit picking
bowel feast	foul beast
I’m a damp stealer	I’m a stamp dealer
hypodemic nurdle	hypodermic needle
wave the sails	save the whales
chipping the flannel on TV	flipping the channel on TV
mad bunny	bad money
I’m shout of the hour	I’m out of the shower
lead of spite	speed of light
this is the pun fart	this is the fun part
I hit my bunny phone	I hit my funny bone
flutter by	butterfly
bedding wells	wedding bells
I must mend the sail	I must send the mail
cop porn	popcorn
it crawls through the fax	it falls through the cracks
my zips are lipped	my lips are zipped
bat flattery	flat battery
would you like a nasal hut?	would you like a hazel nut?
puke on	coupon
belly jeans	jelly beans
eye ball	bye all
fight in your race	right in your face
ready as a stock	steady as a rock
no tails	toe nails
hiss and lear	listen here
soul of ballad	bowl of salad

Read this and this for more.

Truman Henry Safford

Truman Henry Safford (6 January 1836 – 13 June 1901) was an American calculating prodigy.

He was born in Royalton, Vermont, USA on 6 January, 1836. At an early age he attracted public attention by his remarkable calculation powers. At the age of nine, a local priest asked him to multiply 365,365,365,365,365,365 by itself. In less than a minute he gave the correct answer of 133,491,850,208,566,925,016,658,299,941,583,225. At around this age he also developed a new rule for calculating the moon’s risings and settings, taking one-quarter of the time of the existing method.

Unlike many other calculating prodigies, Safford did not give public exhibitions. He went to college and studied astronomy. He became the second director of the Hopkins Observatory at Williams College, the oldest extant astronomical observatory in the United States. He served as director of the Observatory until his death in 1901.

Mark Zuckerberg

A couple of days back, I had put a post on the Founder of Linkedin, Reid Hoffman

Think people series should also feature the founder of Facebook, one of the most popular social netwo

rking site.

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is an American billionaire and entrepreneur best known for co-founding the popular social networking site Facebook. Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook with fellow classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Chris Hughes while attending Harvard. Zuckerberg is responsible for setting the overall direction and product strategy for Facebook. He leads the design of Facebook’s service and development of its core technology and infrastructure. Zuckerberg serves as Facebook’s CEO.

Time Magazine added Zuckerberg as one of The World’s Most Influential People of 2008.

Founding days

Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dorm room on February 4, 2004. The idea for Facebook came from his days at Phillips Exeter Academy which, like most colleges and prep schools, had a long-standing tradition of publishing an annual student directory with headshot photos of all students, faculty and staff known as the “Facebook”. Once at college, Zuckerberg’s Facebook started off as just a “Harvard-thing”, until Zuckerberg then decided to spread Facebook to other schools and enlisted the help of roommate Dustin Moskovitz.

By the beginning of the summer, Zuckerberg and Moskovitz had released Facebook at almost forty-five schools and hundreds of thousands of people were using it.

And that’s Mark Zuckerberg’s profile on Facebook. Read this and this for more.

Reid Hoffman

What’s a better way to introduce Reid Hoffman than introducing him through his Linked In profile. Reid is the founder of Linked In, the professional-networking-site.

A glance through his profile and I said, WOW!

Reid Hoffman

Not just the founder of Linked In, he’s also been on the founding board of Pay Pal. As an angel investor, he has facilitated angel funding for several ventures including www.facebook.com, www.zynga.com, www.digg.com, www.technorati.com, www.friendster.com, www.socialtext.com, www.jaxtr.com, www.flixster.com,  www.flickr.com, www.last.fm, www.ping.fm, and www.sixapart.com.

Amazing sense of ventures that would work and create an impact! Some of the investments made can be seen here

Hoffman was born in Stanford, California, and grew up in Berkeley, California. He graduated from Stanford University (where he won a Marshall Scholarship and a Dinkelspiel Award) with a bachelor’s degree in symbolic systems and from Oxford University with a master’s degree in philosophy.

After working at Apple Computer and Fujitsu, Hoffman co-founded his first company, SocialNet.com. While at Socialnet, Hoffman was a member of the board of directors at the founding of PayPal, an electronic money transmission service, and later joined the firm as a full-time employee. At the time of PayPal’s acquisition by eBay in 2002, he was Executive Vice President of PayPal in charge of business and corporate development.

Charles Cros

Charles Cros was the first person to describe, but not build, a device with which sound could be both recorded, and after processing, the recording played back. No one before M. Charles Cros had thought of reproducing sound by making an apparatus capable of registering and reproducing sounds which had been engraved with a diaphragm. On April 30, 1877 he submitted a sealed envelope containing a letter to the Academy of Sciences in Paris explaining his proposed method. The letter was read in public on the 3rd December following. In his letter, after having shown that his method consisted of detecting an oscillation of a membrane and using the tracing to reproduce the oscillation with respect to its duration and intensity. Cros added that a cylindrical form for the receiving apparatus seemed to him to be the most practical, as it allowed for the graphic inscription of the vibrations by means of a very fine-threaded screw.

Before Cros had a chance to follow up on this idea or attempt to construct a working model, Thomas Alva Edison introduced his first working phonograph in the USA. Edison used a cylinder covered in tinfoil for his first phonograph, patenting this method for reproducing sound on January 15, 1878. Edison and Cros apparently did not know of each other’s work in advance.

Cros was a well-regarded poet and humorous writer. He developed various improved methods of photography including an early color photo process. He also invented improvements in telegraph technology.

Richard Trevithick

Richard Trevithick (13 April 1771 – 22 April 1833) was a British inventor and mining engineer. His most significant success was the high pressure steam engine and he was also the builder of the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive. On 21 February 1804 the world’s first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place as Trevithick’s unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales.

Trevithick built a full-size steam road locomotive in 1801 on a site near the present day Fore Street at Camborne. He named the carriage ‘Puffing Devil’ and, on Christmas Eve that year, he demonstrated it by successfully carrying several men up Fore Street and then continuing on up Camborne Hill, from Camborne Cross, to the nearby village of Beacon with his cousin and associate, Andrew Vivian, steering. This event is widely recognised as the first demonstration of transportation powered by steam.

In 1802 Trevithick built one of his high pressure steam engines to drive a hammer at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. With the assistance of Rees Jones, an employee of the iron works and under the supervision of Samuel Homfray, the proprietor, he mounted the engine on wheels and turned it into a locomotive. In 1803 Trevithick sold the patents for his locomotives to Samuel Homfray.

Homfray was so impressed with Trevithick’s locomotive that he made a bet with another ironmaster, Richard Crawshay, for 500 guineas that Trevithick’s steam locomotive could haul 10 tons of iron along the Merthyr Tydfil Tramroad from Penydarren to Abercynon, a distance of 9.75 miles (16 km). Amid great interest from the public, on 21 February 1804 it successfully carried 10 tons of iron, 5 wagons and 70 men the full distance in 4 hours and 5 minutes, an average speed of approximately 2.4 mph (3.9 km/h).(Read more)

Lester William Polsfuss

He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which “made the sound of rock and roll possible”. He is credited with many recording innovations, including overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects, and multitrack recording.

A solid-body instrument is a string instrument such as a guitar, bass or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on an electric pickup system to directly receive the vibrations of the strings.

Paul’s innovative guitar, “The Log”, built in 1939, was one of the first solid-body electric guitars. Adolph Rickenbacker had marketed a solid-body guitar in the 1930s and Leo Fender also independently created his own in the late 1940s. Though Paul approached the Gibson Guitar Corporation with his idea of a solid body electric guitar, they showed no interest until Fender produced theirs. Gibson designed a guitar incorporating Paul’s suggestions in the early fifties and presented it to him to try. He was impressed enough to sign a contract for what became the “Les Paul” model, originally only in a “gold top” version (official name: “Les Paul Standard”)

The original Gibson Les Paul guitar design regained popularity when Eric Clapton began playing the instrument a few years later.

You could read up this and this for more.

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita

Starting today, One-post-daily will also feature personalities. We would try profiling them and figuring out their claim to fame. We start off with “Bruce Bueno de Mesquita”

Can a fringe branch of mathematics forecast the future? This special adviser to the CIA, Fortune 500 companies, and the U.S. Department of Defense certainly thinks so.

Mesquita says that a computer model he built and has perfected over the last 25 years can predict the outcome of virtually any international conflict, provided the basic input is accurate. And his predictions are alarmingly specific. His predictions about issues that concern the CIA were 90% accurate as compared to the experts on the subject who were less than 50% accurate.

An Instance

Back in March 2004, when al-Qaeda bombed a Madrid train station, influencing the course of Spain’s general election three days later, a lot of U.S. security folks were nervous. Worried that al-Qaeda might try something similar here in the run-up to the November, 2004, presidential elections, the Pentagon hired Bueno de Mesquita to run some data through his forecasting model to tell them what to expect. The results were unequivocal. He said there would be no homeland attack. He also indicated that bin Laden’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, would resurface around Thanksgiving, 2004. Just after the elections in November that year, Zawahiri released a new videotape. Bueno de Mesquita was right on both counts. One of the things government needs most is advice that’s precise and not wishy-washy and that’s where Mesquita comes into picture.

And to do this he starts with some basic assumptions, uses game theory frameworks and mathematical computations to find a plaussible solution.

His next prediction is on the future of Iran and how it would handle the pressures of the USA and the European Union and whether Iran would go ahead and make nuclear weapons. His theory, simulation and results are explained in this talk @ TEDtalks.

The same are explained in fair detail in this blog

Very Interesting!

Some more reads include wiki and this post on The new Nostradamus