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Sunday, March 3, 2013
Arro For iPhone Tells You What To Buy While In The Store?And ...
Arro, a new mobile shopping companion app for iPhone, is publicly launching this week with a different idea about how to help shoppers in store aisles make a quick decision on whether or not to buy. Instead of focusing on price matching or personalized product recommendations, the app gives users a shortlist of the top five choices, based on its analysis of millions of online reviews.
There are a lot of apps in the mobile shopping space, so the distinctions between Arro and others is important.
Explains CEO and co-founder Manish Vij, when you?re at the store, you don?t have time to wade through Amazon reviews. ?Arro tells you whether you should buy the model you?re looking at or whether there are better choices,? he says. ?And it makes it easy to help a friend who?s at the store and needs advice: simply tap the products you want to share,? Vij adds.
The app first launched into beta in the beginning of November 2012, with just 10 categories to start collecting user feedback. Now that it?s going public, the app has close to 100 categories available. During the beta, 1,500 users tried the app, but the dominant feedback (around 95 percent) said their main complaint was that it didn?t have enough categories. That problem has now been addressed.
These early tests also saw some great conversion metrics, Vij tells us. 40 percent conversion from web visit to app download, 58 percent tapping through to stores, 1.7 percent conversion to purchase (70 percent higher than the mobile average) and 5.5 searches per user on average.
When you?re ready to see Arro?s shortlist, you just hit the blue ?Find? button and the app returns a top result and five others. The data the app uses to determine its recommendations comes from crunching the reviews left at over 6,000 online stores, where shoppers detail a product?s various strengths and weaknesses. While reviewing your results, you can view photos, read snippets to linked to the full review on the source?s website, view ratings, favorite items, or click a link to be redirected to an online store to buy the item (e.g. Amazon) which opens up directly within the app.
If you?re still a bit unsure, you can tap the ?Ask Friend? option instead, which allows you to reach out via Facebook (on iOS6), Twitter or email.
As noted above, there are a lot of services out there in this general space, including search, recommendation and comparison engines like Google?s, Wize, ShopSavvy, RedLaser (from eBay), Amazon?s Price Check app, and more. But Arro?s closest competitors include Decide.com, Find the Best and Sortable.
What Arro does have going for it is that the app is really well-designed. It?s attractive, simple and straightforward, and very easy to use. Though I might not have always agreed with its number one recommendation, when testing with products I owned, I often found the one I purchased in the top five. At the very least, it seemed to be a useful way to get some quick recommendations on categories where you might have otherwise struggled to even know where to begin.
On Monday, Arro will release an update to its app which introduces a ?get this, not that feature,? which will allow you to tell it the product you?re considering buying, and it will tell you whether it?s a go or not. And if not, it will make alternative suggestions, based on the product you were considering.
The Palo Alto-based company has a bit of seed funding, which includes investment from Scott Crosby, co-founder of Urchin, now COO at Euclid. Other investors detailed here on AngelList include Kai Huang (RedOctane co-founder), Nick Mehta (CEO at LiveOffice), and more.
Arro is a free download?here in iTunes.
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Roanoke County's tennis clinics bring people of all ages together to ...
In this article from the new Spring 2013 edition of Recreation Family Fun Guide, we take take a look at Roanoke County?s tennis clinics, and how the sport transcends age boundaries. Look for a series of?free introductory lessons on April 1st at various locations throughout the County.
?
Mick Merlin had never touched a tennis racquet in his life. Diagnosed with lung cancer in 2004, he didn?t expect to live this long, let alone pick up a new sport. Now in his late 50?s, Mick is a player and captain in three different leagues, with a local championship win under his belt.
?If somebody would have told me a few years ago that I?d be playing tennis I would have laughed in their face.? says Mick. ?Now I can tell you that it?s a whole lot more fun to go out and play, even if you lose , than to be sitting on the couch at home. You?d be surprised what you can do!?
Mick?s first exposure to the sport was through a Roanoke County tennis clinic. His instructor, Bill Fitzgibbon, was also introduced to tennis later in life, at the age of 34. Bill is also the U.S. Tennis Association?s (U.S.T.A.) Leagues Coordinator for the State of Virginia.
Bill clearly loves his job. ?What can be more fulfilling than to have learned something that makes you happy and have the opportunity to share it with other people and universally make them happy as well? I think I get as much out of it as they do.?
Tennis is often called a lifetime sport. No matter what your age or skill level, you don?t have to look far to find someone to play with. Tennis provides a great cardio workout, while enhancing your balance and focus. Finally, tennis is affordable! In the Roanoke Valley, we?re blessed with plenty of public courts, so there are always places to play.
Tennis also has a social component that many sports don?t have. ?You get involved in the community,? says Bill. ?You meet hundreds of new people and get together at a venue where you?re all having fun.?
The U.S.T.A. has recently introduced several new forms of play aimed at getting young people involved in tennis. Launched just a few years ago, Quick Start Tennis uses larger balls and lower nets to keep younger kids from getting intimidated by full size equipment.
?If you?re four feet high, it?s pretty intimidating to hit a ball over a net that?s 36 inches in the middle,? says Bill. If you start on a smaller court with a lower net, kids get pretty good. The most important thing is kids get confident and feel good about themselves.?
Parks and Recreation sponsored clinics are one of the best places to learn the sport, because you get to learn from certified instructors at a fairly low cost to the student. Certification is important because it provides a framework for teaching that has a proven track record.
According to Bill, ?My goal is to teach you enough so you can feel good about yourself, and want to go out there and have more fun. Try it and see if you like it! The next thing you know you?ve met 200 people you don?t know before. It?s a great social and athletic endeavor.?
Once you?ve learned the basics, the U.S.T.A offers a wide variety of divisions separated by age and skill level. Whether you?re 9 years old or 90, there?s a place for you to play.
Mick Merlin believes that he?ll be playing tennis for many years to come. ?It?s a lifelong sport, whether you?re a youngster or a senior citizen. Tennis is a whole lot of fun, competitive, good for your health and not expensive. It just kinda makes sense??
- Submitted by Roanoke County Parks & Recreation
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Saturday, March 2, 2013
Short algorithm, long-range consequences
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Public release date: 1-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Sarah McDonnell
s_mcd@mit.edu
617-827-7637
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CAMBRIGDE, MA -- In the last decade, theoretical computer science has seen remarkable progress on the problem of solving graph Laplacians the esoteric name for a calculation with hordes of familiar applications in scheduling, image processing, online product recommendation, network analysis, and scientific computing, to name just a few. Only in 2004 did researchers first propose an algorithm that solved graph Laplacians in "nearly linear time," meaning that the algorithm's running time didn't increase exponentially with the size of the problem.
At this year's ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, MIT researchers will present a new algorithm for solving graph Laplacians that is not only faster than its predecessors, but also drastically simpler. "The 2004 paper required fundamental innovations in multiple branches of mathematics and computer science, but it ended up being split into three papers that I think were 130 pages in aggregate," says Jonathan Kelner, an associate professor of applied mathematics at MIT who led the new research. "We were able to replace it with something that would fit on a blackboard."
The MIT researchers Kelner; Lorenzo Orecchia, an instructor in applied mathematics; and Kelner's students Aaron Sidford and Zeyuan Zhu believe that the simplicity of their algorithm should make it both faster and easier to implement in software than its predecessors. But just as important is the simplicity of their conceptual analysis, which, they argue, should make their result much easier to generalize to other contexts.
Overcoming resistance
A graph Laplacian is a matrix a big grid of numbers that describes a graph, a mathematical abstraction common in computer science. A graph is any collection of nodes, usually depicted as circles, and edges, depicted as lines that connect the nodes. In a logistics problem, the nodes might represent tasks to be performed, while in an online recommendation engine, they might represent titles of movies.
In many graphs, the edges are "weighted," meaning that they have different numbers associated with them. Those numbers could represent the cost in time, money or energy of moving from one step to another in a complex logistical operation, or they could represent the strength of the correlations between the movie preferences of customers of an online video service.
The Laplacian of a graph describes the weights between all the edges, but it can also be interpreted as a series of linear equations. Solving those equations is crucial to many techniques for analyzing graphs.
One intuitive way to think about graph Laplacians is to imagine the graph as a big electrical circuit and the edges as resistors. The weights of the edges describe the resistance of the resistors; solving the Laplacian tells you how much current would flow between any two points in the graph.
Earlier approaches to solving graph Laplacians considered a series of ever-simpler approximations of the graph of interest. Solving the simplest provided a good approximation of the next simplest, which provided a good approximation of the next simplest, and so on. But the rules for constructing the sequence of graphs could get very complex, and proving that the solution of the simplest was a good approximation of the most complex required considerable mathematical ingenuity.
Looping back
The MIT researchers' approach is much more straightforward. The first thing they do is find a "spanning tree" for the graph. A tree is a particular kind of graph that has no closed loops. A family tree is a familiar example; there, a loop might mean that someone was both parent and sibling to the same person. A spanning tree of a graph is a tree that touches all of the graph's nodes but dispenses with the edges that create loops. Efficient algorithms for constructing spanning trees are well established.
The spanning tree in hand, the MIT algorithm then adds back just one of the missing edges, creating a loop. A loop means that two nodes are connected by two different paths; on the circuit analogy, the voltage would have to be the same across both paths. So the algorithm sticks in values for current flow that balance the loop. Then it adds back another missing edge and rebalances.
In even a simple graph, values that balance one loop could imbalance another one. But the MIT researchers showed that, remarkably, this simple, repetitive process of adding edges and rebalancing will converge on the solution of the graph Laplacian. Nor did the demonstration of that convergence require sophisticated mathematics: "Once you find the right way of thinking about the problem, everything just falls into place," Kelner explains.
###
Written By: Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 1-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Sarah McDonnell
s_mcd@mit.edu
617-827-7637
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CAMBRIGDE, MA -- In the last decade, theoretical computer science has seen remarkable progress on the problem of solving graph Laplacians the esoteric name for a calculation with hordes of familiar applications in scheduling, image processing, online product recommendation, network analysis, and scientific computing, to name just a few. Only in 2004 did researchers first propose an algorithm that solved graph Laplacians in "nearly linear time," meaning that the algorithm's running time didn't increase exponentially with the size of the problem.
At this year's ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing, MIT researchers will present a new algorithm for solving graph Laplacians that is not only faster than its predecessors, but also drastically simpler. "The 2004 paper required fundamental innovations in multiple branches of mathematics and computer science, but it ended up being split into three papers that I think were 130 pages in aggregate," says Jonathan Kelner, an associate professor of applied mathematics at MIT who led the new research. "We were able to replace it with something that would fit on a blackboard."
The MIT researchers Kelner; Lorenzo Orecchia, an instructor in applied mathematics; and Kelner's students Aaron Sidford and Zeyuan Zhu believe that the simplicity of their algorithm should make it both faster and easier to implement in software than its predecessors. But just as important is the simplicity of their conceptual analysis, which, they argue, should make their result much easier to generalize to other contexts.
Overcoming resistance
A graph Laplacian is a matrix a big grid of numbers that describes a graph, a mathematical abstraction common in computer science. A graph is any collection of nodes, usually depicted as circles, and edges, depicted as lines that connect the nodes. In a logistics problem, the nodes might represent tasks to be performed, while in an online recommendation engine, they might represent titles of movies.
In many graphs, the edges are "weighted," meaning that they have different numbers associated with them. Those numbers could represent the cost in time, money or energy of moving from one step to another in a complex logistical operation, or they could represent the strength of the correlations between the movie preferences of customers of an online video service.
The Laplacian of a graph describes the weights between all the edges, but it can also be interpreted as a series of linear equations. Solving those equations is crucial to many techniques for analyzing graphs.
One intuitive way to think about graph Laplacians is to imagine the graph as a big electrical circuit and the edges as resistors. The weights of the edges describe the resistance of the resistors; solving the Laplacian tells you how much current would flow between any two points in the graph.
Earlier approaches to solving graph Laplacians considered a series of ever-simpler approximations of the graph of interest. Solving the simplest provided a good approximation of the next simplest, which provided a good approximation of the next simplest, and so on. But the rules for constructing the sequence of graphs could get very complex, and proving that the solution of the simplest was a good approximation of the most complex required considerable mathematical ingenuity.
Looping back
The MIT researchers' approach is much more straightforward. The first thing they do is find a "spanning tree" for the graph. A tree is a particular kind of graph that has no closed loops. A family tree is a familiar example; there, a loop might mean that someone was both parent and sibling to the same person. A spanning tree of a graph is a tree that touches all of the graph's nodes but dispenses with the edges that create loops. Efficient algorithms for constructing spanning trees are well established.
The spanning tree in hand, the MIT algorithm then adds back just one of the missing edges, creating a loop. A loop means that two nodes are connected by two different paths; on the circuit analogy, the voltage would have to be the same across both paths. So the algorithm sticks in values for current flow that balance the loop. Then it adds back another missing edge and rebalances.
In even a simple graph, values that balance one loop could imbalance another one. But the MIT researchers showed that, remarkably, this simple, repetitive process of adding edges and rebalancing will converge on the solution of the graph Laplacian. Nor did the demonstration of that convergence require sophisticated mathematics: "Once you find the right way of thinking about the problem, everything just falls into place," Kelner explains.
###
Written By: Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/miot-sal030113.php
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Friday, March 1, 2013
How To Grow A Small Business Successfully | IMGrind.com
I?ve been astonished at how many successful businesses have been built around one person or just one team. From people I meet locally here in Kansas City, to people I meet around the world at trade shows and conferences, success stories always peak my curiosity.
Every small business that wants to be successful should have creative influences from both an Entrepreneur and a good Manager. Some Entrepreneurs just aren?t good at managing. While some Managers just aren?t good at creativity.
Success is often the result of qualities such as:
- Desire
- Spirit
- Loyalty
- Courage
- Honor
- Pride
When it comes to experience, I much rather have 10 years of Industry experience over a Master?s Degree. This is because statistics from research I?ve studied numerous times have shown that first-time Entrepreneurs have less than 10% chance at success. While Entrepreneurs who have previously failed have a 20% chance at success. The important part thing to take away from this is that you learn by doing.
When it comes time to start introducing employees into your business, go after people who share your passion and vision of the future of your business. Make sure they share the same values and understanding of what you plan to accomplish with the business. Look for people who are ready to fully commit themselves to your business.
You have to keep a balance though. Some business failures are because of inappropriate manpower planning. Don?t hire more than you can afford but be sure to have enough to keep up with the workload and service your clients effectively.
Learning ? Always learn from others experiences. This is really simple to do. Simply connect with other business owners including those who are running the same type of business as yours. Try to develop new products while maintaining the high quality of your existing products. Always ask your customers for feedback. You can do this simply by deploying surveys or direct interaction with them to find out what are the items that they need and expect from your business.
Don?t get greedy ? The 80/20 rule comes into effect here. 80% of your business will typically come from 20% of your customers. Keep in mind that accepting too many clients when you simply can?t handle the workload will likely disappoint your current clients. This means, you will likely start losing current business. In a sense, you won?t be actually building business, you will be staying afloat.
Customer Service Is Critical ? Always be creating and maintaining the highest level of satisfaction to your customers. Satisfied customers are likely to come back to you and recommend others to you as well. Go the extra mile by providing additional services such as free shipping or offering extended hours.
Happy customers are the best tool in your marketing arsenal. Word of mouth marketing is the most powerful form of viral marketing you can get. Especially, in today?s multi-socially connected world. Aim to please your customers and they will willingly spread the word about your business. Word of mouth marketing is credible, trusted, and personalized.
Keep Your Focus ? Entrepreneurial ventures may significantly change focus from the initial concept through a continuous response to the market and the desire to optimize profitability. Regardless of your business type, you should employ these three key principles:
- Your Current Strategy ? This is the one you?re in the marketplace with right now
- The Next Strategy ? The R&D is done and it?s on the shelf (so to speak) ready to deploy when the current strategy plays out
- The Quantum Leap Strategy ? The one you?re investing in today so it?s ready to follow #2
Find A Business Opportunity ? Business owners that are passionate about their business are more likely to succeed. Find out if the Industry you considering has high potential or low potential. High potential Industries are the ones that are emerging, or at least, haven?t spent too much time on the maturity spectrum. An example of this is the Technology Industry. Low potential Industries are the ones that have already seen their best days.
Start Using Technology ? Stay ahead of your competition by using advanced technology. Some basic tech tools to utilize for small businesses include:
- Planning Software
- Email Management
- Mobile Internet Access
- Accounting Software
- Time Tracking Software
Marketing ? While there are a ton of marketing methods listed here on IMGrind, I?ll still throw out some basic ones to get you started. Potential customers are always scanning search engines to discover new products, services and businesses. However, these days Social Media is a must. Customers are now learning about products, services and businesses through websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Online Forums.
Never assume that your product is so good that you don?t need a marketing plan. Even on a small budget there are a ton of ways to get word out about your business.
Source: http://www.imgrind.com/how-to-grow-a-small-business-successfully/
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Suspect in Las Vegas Strip killings arrested in Los Angeles
By Jason Kandel and Nyree Arabian, NBCLosAngeles.com
The suspect in last week's triple slaying on the Las Vegas Strip has been arrested in Los Angeles, the Clark County District Attorney's Office said on Thursday.
Ammar Harris, 26, was taken into custody in LA in connection with the shooting death of Oakland rapper Kenneth Wayne Cherry Jr. aka Kenny Clutch, officials said.
Details about his arrest were not immediately available. KSNV, NBC's affiliate in Las Vegas, reported that the suspect was hiding out in LA at a friend's home that a task force of officers had been watching.
Las Vegas police expect to have more information about the arrest at an afternoon press conference.
Police accuse the suspect of being the driver of a Range Rover from which gunfire erupted, killing the 27-year-old rapper.
Clutch died at the wheel of a Maserati.
The Maserati crashed into a taxicab which subsequently exploded, killing the driver and the 48-year old passenger.
Harris was identified by police as the lead suspect in the case.
Harris could be seen online boasting about the stacks of money that have come his way thanks to being a pimp, according to reports.
In one video, Harris "flashes a thick stack" of $100 bills.
In a Web posting, he boasts of the flock of women at his home, all of whom are working for him.
In another, he talks about the birthday party he is organizing on a boat in the Atlantic Ocean, replete with a $1,000 bikini contest, the AP reported.
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Andrew Mason Tweeting About Oranges Before ... - Business Insider
A day before he was fired, Groupon CEO Andrew Masonsent this cryptic tweet about attending a meeting of four people being asked to share three oranges in a meeting:
On Feb. 28, to announce he was let go, he tweeted:
The Jottit note linked to his quirky resignation letter, the one that said, "I've decided that I'd like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding - I was fired today."
In hindsight, the "oranges meeting" sounds ominous. So the question is, what was the deal with the three oranges? And who could have been the four people asked to share them?
Here's a thought: Mason was replaced by chairman Eric Lefkofsky and director Ted Leonsis. So those three people would have been in Mason's final meeting at Groupon, presumably. Mason and Lefkofsky hold controlling interests in Groupon stock along with one other board director: Brad Keywell.
Mason + Lefkofsky + Leonsis + Keywell = four people.
We tweeted at Mason for a comment. We'll let you know if he replies.
In the meantime, one of our readers noted this:
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/andrew-mason-tweeting-about-oranges-before-he-was-fired-2013-3
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