Nerd Stalker

Ever say "I wish I knew you were coming to this concert, I would have..." or "I didn't know you were going to that conference in Atlanta, we could have..."? These are the issues that NY startup, Ribbon , is trying to solve - synchronicity with your network. With a simple map interface and a boatload of your Facebook friends in tow, you can now find out who is where and when. We talk with Tony Alfaro about Ribbon and his entrepreneurial experiences in this segment. Find out why Tony hasn't worked for anyone since the age of 9.

  Pictures tell a thousand words. We were invited by Brian Zisk and SF Music Tech Summit to cover their event at Hotel Kabuki in Japantown and were not disappointed. We shot some great footage which we will release in a little bit featuring some startups and highlights from a Music and Health discussion featuring the great Mickey Hart from the Grateful Dead. To capture some of the nuance that has become SF MusicTech Summit, we wanted to collate the twitterverse pics to show you how exciting this event was. If you haven't been, this should convince you. See you at the next SFMusicTech Summit!

How do you provide value in education? Give them options. And that's what Sameer Bhatia and his team at ProProfs have done. Starting out with a simple quiz tool, ProProfs have pivoted onto what is an educational and training goldmine. Sameer discusses how tapping into a global market helps learners succeed and how a customer's voice shaped their product offerings you see today.

BERKELEY BOARD – MIDI CONTROLLER CONCEPTS, Nerd Stalker interview at O'reilly Maker Faire. Check out this interesting exercise in UI concepts. From the Berkeley Board site, "the object of building the board is to explore areas of musical instrument design. Isomorphic keyboard : not the key feature, but it takes the notion of ergonomic design in consideration Button (key) position sensors: after looking at piezo and keyboard switches have decided to use CNY70 infrared sensors Balls as keys: allows glissando, a different feel with a full 5/16″ travel Channels : additive logic that allows the left and and right hand to work together. This enables features like modal fabric."

This week Adolfo Foronda and Greg Viloria discusses their tech picks of the week. Adolfo talks Maker Faire, XBox One, Foc.us, crazy monks and more. Greg aka SocialGreg talks about Maker Faire, Augmented Illusions, Yahoo!, Ethics of 3D Printers and more.

We are happy to again be talking to Taffy Williams this month about startups, leadership and business creation. We get some in-depth thoughts from Taffy about topics in his blog  -- Startup Blog . This month we discuss two articles Taffy wrote recently for the examiner.com called  “ 5 Ideas That May Facilitate Creating a Startup Business ” and " 3 Levels of Influence Can Change the World " which provide ways you can change the world and environment around you.

photos by Arduino Team and  tomasz przechlewski "Arduino is the Gutenberg Press of today." That's what Steve of the Homebrew Robotics Club says. I think he is right. What Steve and many others who has created DIY projects in the past have acknowledged that making electronics is now out the hands of the rich, and elite and into the hands of the average. In our Nerd's eye view of the 2013 Maker Faire, we summarize how Arduino has changed people and business across the board.