New Florence. New Renaissance.

Sports Analytics Research Papers

At the annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference which starts today, there is a competition pitting 8 research papers

check them out and vote for them as well

• POINTWISE: Predicting Points and Valuing Decisions in Real Time with NBA Optical Tracking Data
• The Hot Hand: A New Approach to an Old "Fallacy"
• The Three Dimensions of Rebounding
• Automatically Recognizing On-Ball Screens
• Win at Home and Draw Away: Automatic Formation Analysis Highlighting the Differences in Home and Away Team Behaviors
• What Does it Take to Call a Strike: Three Biases in Umpire Decision Making
• Can't Buy Much Love: Why Money is Not Baseball's Most Valuable Currency
• A Data-driven Method for In-game Decision Making in MLB

Photo Credit ESPN Magazine

Staples Connect

a hub for the smart home with a very wide ecosystem of devices

Staples Connect is the most accessible and encompassing of their offerings thus far and consists of a $100 Linksys hub module, with no recurring fees, and the requisite apps for designing activities and home control. Think Harmony Remote for Home Automation. Again, the power here is their agnostic approach. View your D-Link security cam on your Samsung HDTV, as shown above, or tell your Jawbone Up fitness band you’re headed to bed which, in turn, triggers your Lutron dimmer-controlled lights to power down.

Photo Credit

Iron Man: Hollywood meets Silicon Valley

From a Fortune profile of Robert Downey Jr.

“As part of my research (for the Iron Man project), I wanted to interview two people: John Underkoffler [the chief scientist at computer interface company Oblong] and Elon. I thought it was really interesting that he literally had decided to become a rocket scientist. And although the similarities kind of end with a certain -- what would you say? -- just an amazing self-agency, you know, that I think Elon really embodies. I was looking to Under­koffler for straight technology [advice]. You remember in Minor­ity Report, the character is wearing those gloves and moving the screens around? He and his company built that into a reality, so I was taking some cues from him: If Tony had designed his own software and his own programs and the machinery to operate them, what sort of language would he design to be able to ma­nipulate his environment? And over the course of all these mov­ies, that's been as much a part of Tony's character as anything else. The spirit of Elon was really inspiring to me because Tony goes from doing one thing so well and so successfully, and goes to do something that's a lot more risky and much more far reaching.”

iElevation

Courtesy of Troy Angrignon I saw this Apple tribute to mountaineers Adrian Ballinger and Emily Harrington who have scaled many of the world’s tallest peaks. It is a gorgeous page built around their use of the iPad and the Gaia GPS topography app but provides an amazing amount of detail about other equipment and physical challenges of such extreme climbing.

Must see website.

Craft Communities

Conde Nast Traveler profiles three sets of craft communities. Good to see age old traditions continue to innovate and thrive.

Photo Credit of Chihuly Garden in Seattle

The Third Wave of Computing

The point isn't the gadget: it's the combination of the intimacy of a device that is always with us and that only we use, with the power of cloud-based processing and storage. The wearable device itself is actually only the small, physical manifestation of a much larger service: Google Glass gives its wearers a head-up display, voice control and a forward-facing camera, but it's only through a connection to the internet that it can live up to its potential.

Wired UK

Precision Farming

Innovation and Technology Today on technology to enhance a history of precision farming at SPH Farm in Colby, KS

“With reasonably obtainable yield goals as a target, the fertilizer is not only applied as needed across the field per data-based recommendations, but also precisely and strategically placed into the soil geometrically. This allows the roots of each plant to reach the bands and best utilize the nutrients. As with all other uses of smart technology in the business world, human brains and ingenuity are ultimately more important. In this case, the Downing family’s keen knowledge of root systems enables the technology to work optimally.
The same John Deere processor that auto steers the machines across the field also controls the machine’s hydraulic driven pumps at variable rates. It can blend different formulations from up to five products, all carried on the machine in separate tanks. The processor takes input from the custom prescription maps and blends the prescribed rates on the go. It also saves and produces “as applied” maps and data that allow Brian and his colleagues to overlay the application maps on top of the harvested crop production maps to study how well the initial decisions came out.”

AG Maps Online talks about the growing role of drones (UAVs) in precision agriculture as "platform + GPS + autopilot & communication + sensor + data processing & integration + legal & operation". Photo Credit below from Ag-Wing

 

From B2B to B2C

Nice InformationWeek story on Penske Truck Leasing as they moved to selling used vehicles to consumers, not just to resellers

“The Penske team knew it needed the right terminology and keywords to get the attention of shoppers and search engines, so IT and marketing did customer interviews to get it right. "We say 'cargo van,' but some people refer to it as a high cube or a box truck," says Stobbart. After the added keywords and cross-referencing, "we went from having a keyword base of about 100 vehicle names to 2,200," he says. Another problem was something Stobbart says he and the team took for granted in the planning stages: collecting and organizing photos. "Getting images on the site wouldn't seem like a challenge," he says, "but we don't have a centralized truck lot. Our total fleet runs out of 2,500 locations nationwide." The fix required reengineering Penske's fleet management system and requiring that whenever the company lists a new vehicle for sale on the site, five images must come with it. Having a good product and building a useful website are table stakes these days. Attracting customers takes an aggressive search engine optimization and social media strategy.”

Photo Credit

Road and Track's half a century of cars

Road and Track honors 51 cars, with nearly half introduced in the 60s and 70s

If you don’t have a subscription, worth buying this issue, but in meantime check out list at this blog – and you will see Alfa Romeos and Shelbys and Lotuses along with other better known brands.

The Galaxy S5

Though the design of the device remains much the same as its predecessor, the Galaxy S4, the new model boasts a slightly larger 5.1-inch body with a high-resolution 1080p display, a 16-megapixel camera, and two crucial features that will have the enterprise cheering and Apple cursing: a fingerprint reader, and an in-built heart-rate sensor.

ZDNet

Photo Credit The Verge