Archive – Page 10 – The Silicon Valley Story

Cell Phones and Brain Tumors

Posted on January 12, 2014

thesiliconvalleystorycom looks at cell phone dangers

The scientists are strongly behind this one now. It wasn’t always so. But people don’t seem to care..too much.

The Federal Communications Commission announced this year it would review its maximum Specific Absorption Rate for cell phones. SAR is a measure of the rate of radio waves absorbed into the body of someone using a cell phone. A phone certified by the agency and sold in the United States cannot exceed a rate of 1.6 watts per kilogram, which critics say is possibly too high and based on outdated information from 1996, when the standard was set.

But regardless of whether an SAR is low, an individual’s exposure can increase when a phone is held close to the body for long periods of time. Apple now warns customers in its iPhone manuals to keep the device at least five-eighths of an inch away from their bodies while using its phones to avoid risking exposure to radiation that exceeds FCC guidelines. And Green Swan, a Novato company, makes an app that yelps a warning when talkers hold the phone too close to their heads.http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Cell-phones-link-to-health-problems-debated-5091712.php

Apple is now warning people to stay away from direct contact of the ear/head.

Are we so caught up in new tech, disruptive tech and wearable tech that we are ignoring a clear and present danger from cell phones?

How much government are we going to allow to harm us? The FDA stops 23andme from marketing the health aspects of their genetic tests and the FCC ignores the science behind cell phones and brain tumors. The linkage and control of the federal government to Silicon Valley is not denied by anyone. Turn it into a positive – don’t ignore the fact this association can become a danger.

Protests in the Bay Area to Tom Wheeler about dangers of wireless tech – http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-stop-start-meters-campaign-the-health-impacts-of-wireless-technologies/5364545

“it is important to listen to the truth particularly when it is inconvenient or uncomfortable. The truth is that wireless is hurting us, and as with most toxins, the ones who are marginalized and poor bear the worst impacts.”

General

Downtown Palo Alto

Posted on January 11, 2014

Palo Alto’s newest resident welcomes you at S. Graf on Hamilton and Digital DNA awaits you in Lytton Plaza on University at Emerson.

Start Ups

A Cell Phone, A Problem and a Journey: Vortis

Posted on January 11, 2014

James R. Johnson, CEO Vortis

Joseph Campbell is relevant anywhere. Let’s bring him into Silicon Valley with these words of his:

“The usual hero adventure begins with someone from whom something has been taken, or who feels there is something lacking in the normal experience available or permitted to the members of society. The person then takes off on a series of adventures beyond the ordinary, either to recover what has been lost or to discover some life-giving elixir. It’s usually a cycle, a coming and a returning.”

Some may find a new social media app to be newsworthy. It is – for brief moment. But there are some stories that are timeless and worthy of a Joseph Campbell journey. James R Johnson is the hero in this story, in every way that Campbell describes.

What do you do if you know how to make something everyone needs and suddenly find yourself in a fight to keep on making it? Suppose everything in the palm of your hand magically disappears only you didn’t want it to. If you’re like Steve Jobs you eventually end up as the biggest comeback story ever. You bring music to the masses and they can take it everywhere. Hello, iPod.

There was only one Steve Jobs and his story is now history. But there are always plans gone awry or hijacked by highway robbers. There will never be an end for the opportunity for the comeback story of the day.

We have another epic comeback. A comeback story is important because of what it tells us about the one who brought it back. It is Campbells’ Hero’s Journey writ large. It tells us that he who commanded the ship during turbulent weather knows the geography of rocky shores, and sunken ships, and siren calls and eyes on the prize. These are stories of hope and energy, loss and focus, and when its over and done, it is a story of wisdom, shared. That is a lasting and meaningful iconic story. This is not to say that Zuckerberg of Facebook fame hasn’t changed the mode of communication of break ups and birthdays but his story is not a wisdom shared story.

The Vortis is an epic story of how, with the help from his friends, Johnson won the hearts and minds of the FCC, the hearing industry,and health and safety groups and took back his new technology from those who grabbed it from him. He lost something, he won it back and like any hero, he is sharing the wisdom as he returns to the place he began.

What do we have here? And what makes this story so important?

In the words of founder and CEO Jim Johnson, Vortis is “….introducing a new science of interferometry as an ergonomic antenna technology to a global head warming problem by telecoms reluctant in meeting customer or management requirements per international standards or California’s law of Intentions and Win/Win Scenarios.”

Translation – Johnson has an antenna embedded or added on to your cell phone that allows the hard of hearing to use it (THIS is awesome!). It is also green and good for you. This means, Vortis has an antenna that doesn’t heat your brain like the current ones (KEEP your kids safe, folks, limit the time until you have Vortis Inside) as if changes the patterns of radio waves so they radiate outwards instead of to your head. Your battery lives longer and so do you. The energy that went into your head now goes to bringing you signal strength. And because of this, those with a hearing aid can use the cell technology. In case you didn’t know (I did not) this means a full 10% of the population can now join the mainstream in using a cell.

We applaud inclusion technology – technology that brings everyone to the same place. The playing field is leveled.

“Got Vortis?” Free to talk.

There’s a story to Vortis, it’s a comeback story and you almost didn’t have this new tech but the captain of the ship took on the pirates and weathered the storm and we are here to tell you how he did it. But first we wanted to let you know what you have.

Johnson says he is not a hero, but a socialpreneur with one goal in mind; “reduce global warming of heads” and “reduce the most asked questions in society today—can you hear me now!” He can call himself a socialpreneur but we are calling this comeback heroic.

Most overnight successes are years in the making, not a few nights of coding, a story gone viral. They’re here, but they are rare. Rare is worthy of attention when it matters.

Vortis matters.

Stay with us as we bring you more on how the Vortis is a global story of green, safe, new cell tech by way of the Vortis story. Via Vortis

To Theranos: This Changes Everything

Posted on January 8, 2014

UPDATE, July 16, 2014 I am so behind on Theranos stories but have to comment on today’s Palo Alto paper’s comparison of Elizabeth Holmes to Mark Zuckerberg. I say NO! Compare her to no one! Give her credit for what she has accomplished and see it for what it is: amazing tech. Why can’t we say, “Job well done, Elizabeth.”? Annoys me she is compared to Zuckerberg. Oh, I like him well enough and kudos to him of course but hey – you, go girl! And same to Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andme. Who is more than wife of Sergey Brin (ok, estranged wife, I know, I know.)

I have been getting a whole, whole lot of emails about Theranos and Elizabeth recently; “You were right, she is going places!” Yes, and I plan on an update soon but when the DOD hangs out on my pages about her and so do VC’s and Lab Corps and Quest and pharmcos, it isn’t hard to connect the dots. And some days, Theranos gets more attention than anything else, including Silicon Valley sex stories!

Meanwhile, here’s an old post – and the original is here: THERANOS, Game-Changer…

Theranos – if I had the video going on my iPhone today as I told a Lab Corps tech about you it would have made an awesome ad for you and a testimonial for change/disruption.

It doesn’t take long for a lab tech to get it.

I showed her your website because when I explained your test she just said, “This changes everything!” and there you are, mirroring her reaction. She was very excited. In a positive way.

“Automated tests, vending machines for blood tests, no bio-hazard, WHO is this company? ” I watched her mind go. It was awesome. If disruptive innovation has a moment when it clears the debris of the past, this was it. She thought of things that never occurred to me. The bio-hazaed reduction? OF COURSE!

This was a magical moment for me. Interrupting the programming to kickstart into the future – seeing it right before me. A very excited person who got it, in rapid fire thoughts.

Note to disruptors: you can use the ones you disrupt as far as jobs go. Hire them. Use them. They get it. And maybe, just maybe, they get it in a very, very awesome way that they are the messengers: this is change, this is good, trust me, I know.

Bio-hazard reduction. I should have thought of this. But she did. Immediately.

Medical Technology Start Ups

Lab Rats, Theranos and Geo-Fencing

Posted on January 8, 2014

Theranos has a clever sign. Nice. I like it. It is sitting in front of its new home, under construction on Page Mill Rd in Palo Alto. It’s a large campus. Very large. Biggest start up building I have ever seen. Facebook started as a collection of small offices on University and Hamilton Avenues.

But Mark didn’t have the backing of the government. Then.

Notice anything about this building? Does it remind you of another building in progress? Looks like a small version of the new Apple. Sort of.

Theranos in Progress, Page Mill Rd, Palo Alto

Lab rat – that would be me…and others like me. When I ask myself what is Theranos doing and why is it so huge before it opens and why do I care, I come back to my lab rat time.

That’s me as a kid. Dad was an M.D. and he had a lab in his office. There was a lab tech, a tiny room, glass lab equipment and me. I loved that little room and the magic that went on there. In came bodily fluids and out came results. The alchemy of it was magical.

But now we have micro testing, no little labs in doctor’s offices. That’s fine. Change is good and we can say good-bye to the old way. But I recognize that one haven in a small kids life that I loved is gone. No tears need be shed, this isn’t that kind of story. But bring in Geo-Fencing and childhood then and now is clearly seen. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich introduced me to the term via his CES Keynote. In one amazing presentation, smart emerged from the closet. Out came wearable tech, and smart watches and smart kid’s clothes, and ways to know your child’s every move in space and time.

We are going to have to learn how to be smart. How to use the new, new thing, which is now, IoT or Internet of Things. We are keeping track of everyone, everywhere by objects that tell us lots and lots of data points about everything. Obvious conclusion in my leap frog mind: where’s the rebellion? I had a lab to hide in, get away from parental overseeing, talk to a person I would not otherwise know, “Why is that stuff coming out of that machine looking different?” and it was heaven in my haven. In the summers I had a forest, a lake and trails to learn in. We discovered caves and creeks and old trails and stone foundations. I know that today’s kids will not be able to wander through nature like this, nor will they want to. It isn’t paradise lost, but new ways found.

Kids rebel. What form will a 14 year old use to escape eternal smart overseers which is the very environment he lives and breathes in? Will the invisibility cloak be fast tracked?

The Meaning Behind the Smart and Wearable, Trackable and In Your Face World

These are transformative times and it happens as we go about and live our everyday lives. We don’t know how much is being lost; no one is counting,”This is the last time,” “This is not going to be done this way anymore”. But giving kids geo-fencing is enormous. Iconically so. Geo-fencing, the day the music died. But let’s spring hope from the cosmos as we always do and say, “There will be chaos as we move to this newness, this different mode, this Land of Smart Things but we are adaptable and evolvable, as always.”

This is not just Internet of Things, this is the Internet of Technology.

Here’s to the new lab in downtown Palo Alto, located at the corner of Happy and Healthy.

Big Tech

Intel Left the Box: Wearable, Everywhere, and Smart

Posted on January 7, 2014

The Intel keynote at CES in Las Vegas was a window into the future. It’s smart.

It isn’t small, it’s huge. It is transformational. This is the Internet of Things. Odd name, but one example will do: a coffee mug tells you if your baby is too hot or cold. You can find out the specifics of how Nursery 2.0 works and more, so much more (check out Edison – teeny, tiny computer) in many places. It is news.

Intel is The Silicon Valley Story – an older, original and iconic Valley company that has just re-invented itself from supplier of chips to kickstarting all into the future.

It’s smart – as in connected, wired, and providing information. Micro data usable stuff comes from smart things. The world does not need to know your baby’s temp or heart rate (but of course you will go Tweet it) but, really, we all know, no one but you needs to know that data point. This is usable micro, local data.

And here is where smart makes a difference. If the FDA can keep their long reaching arms out of the arena, smart med tech allows for AB, AB testing. That means you can do action A, measure heart rate, do Action B, measure heart rate. What changes it? Coffee, tea or sex? Does it differ with vitamins, foods, time of day? You, and you, have now conducted a scientific test on yourself and it is more valid and reliable than anything else anywhere because YOU are the control.

This is only possible if you cut out the middleman(smart), take control of your actions (smart), learn from them(smart), save money(smart) and act on the knowledge that applies to you and you alone (smart). Smart in tech terms is different – it means making an object a source of live, actionable data. Using it wisely is smart in the old fashioned sense of the term.

Nothing is going to be the same. There are going to be problems: you will be monitored to death. You will be now in a nanny state of hell. Don’t want to take your meds? Who the hell are you to make that decision? Your smart pill bottle or pill itself will let your doctor, pharmacy, and insurance company know you are non compliant. Your mail might have to be smart as in we know what you bought and where it came from.

It is a two edged sword. Your watch will be a tracking device. Good for kids, but if you want to play and no one else should know, then what?

Catastrophe aside as far as rights and privacy go, we have made some incredible things and entered a new era. Eventually, the loss of privacy will be the source of another revolution but when has change ever not happened and then changed again?

Intel left the box and took us with it. Nice work from a new CEO.

The charging bowl was thrown at us with no explanation. Fascinating idea, but where are the hows? I want one, BTW.

And the watch and Jarvis. Oh, hell, Brian, send it all over here.

Government & Technology Start Ups

Big Data Just Got Hyper

Posted on December 30, 2013

Big data is morphing into hyper data. Big data was the buzz word but it wasn’t big enough so it moved at hyper speed. And now it is hyper data. So the next thing will be data faster than the speed of light and if you don’t buy our data analysis you are light years away?

Got it. It’s clear to me now.

The co-founder of ClearStory, a Palo Alto hyper (maiden name ‘big’) data startup chose her words carefully I am sure for the NYT interview in November 2013 when she said, referring to how to use their new data on the fly software,

The trick, said Sharmila Shahani-Mulligan, ClearStory’s co-founder and chief executive, was developing a way to quickly and accurately find all of the data sources available. Another was figuring out how to present data on, say, typical weather in a community, in a way that was useful.

“That way,” said Ms. Shahani-Mulligan, “a coffee shop can tell if customers will drink Red Bull or hot chocolate.”

That’s great! And when the coffee shop learns about the new, new thing in the field of quantum mechanics – a window that opens and closes (the weather! Look – it’s cold and raining! I got it, they want hot chocolate!!) what happens then? Does hyper revert to micro, skipping big, medium and small? Really, Ms. Shahani-Mulligan? Really?

It’s kind of cute though – fits right in with the retro Palo Alto start up called Deliv. What do they do? Hold tight! You won’t believe it. Work with me here, it gets complicated. Suppose you go shopping at Stanford Shopping Center. You buy shoes at Macy’s. And a coat. But you don’t want to take it home yourself. Still with me? Ok. Here it is: You can get it delivered! Right to your door! Daamn…my mother who shopped at the A&P was so ahead of the curve. She was having groceries delivered when I was growing up. I bet A&P didn’t get venture capital funding though.

So, we are clear on the data presented here: you can hire a major firm to tell you the weather and you can have your packages delivered. This is Silicon Valley folks, come and join the free for all! Dylan was right, you don’t need a weatherman to tell which way the wind is blowing. You need Ms. Shahani-Mulligan. High Street, Palo Alto. Around the corner from Whole Foods on Homer. (hyper local data, no charge.)

The New York Times article had some more interesting data points. Apparently when Google and Yahoo and Facebook were faced with lots and lots of data, “like how people cruised the Web or comments they made to their friends”, they didn’t know how to analyze it.

But not to worry, the New York Times tells us: “New hardware and software have also been created that sharply cut the time it takes to analyze this information, fetching it as fast as an iPhone fetches a song.”

We can all go to sleep now. Big data is hyper, being delivered to your door. Your comments are analyzed, your privacy is gone, and it’s cloudy with a chance of annihilation. Are we clear now?

Medical Technology Start Ups

Did 23andMe Hire a John Sculley?

Posted on December 25, 2013

Did 23andme make a mistake with Andy Page as President as Sculley did with Steve?

Two issues here.

23andme’s marketing strategy changed dramatically in the recent past. It became “in your face” in a retail consumer manner, morphing quickly from a more subtle place. Genetic testing was more mainstream now than even a year go, but big box store-like it was not so the advertising seemed out of place.

And when the FDA stopped 23andme from sending health information I kept thinking, “Legal must know what they are doing.”

But, it turns out, there was no legal. Not after former legal counsel Ashley Gould left six months ago.

And the person running the company has no experience in health related tech issues – Andy Page is the new President as of June, 2013. He is experienced, yes. John Sculley was likewise experienced in running Pepsi, but ran Apple into the ground.

Venturebeat has this to say about Andy Page:

Page has extensive experience in growing online businesses. Until recently, he was the president of Gilt Groupe. That explains the drastic uptick in advertising, and the slew of broadcast television ads in the past six months, which appear to have been highly troubling to the feds. For all his e-commerce expertise, Page does not seem to have much experience dealing with the complexities of medical device regulation.

Ok, now it comes together. Great as he may be, and no doubt he is, was Andy Page the wrong person to be in charge of so much at a company he had experience with as a Board member, but not in the intimate manner someone from the field of genetics might be?

Sculley was not right about Steve Jobs. In the end, everything turned out ok. My most favorite recent quote is, “If everything is not ok, it’s not the end.” So here’s to the future, OTC genetic testing, 23andme, Anne Wojcicki, and less FDA intrusion.

Speaking of the FDA – they want evidence they say. OF WHAT? 23andme reads our genes and gives us the results. Then they send out published literature with the results that contextualizes what they gave us. And so? As usual, no one invited logic to this party.

To the random few who do not get it: The FDA is doing this not for the consumer, but for the people who see the dollar signs in the field of genetic testing. They are big.

Voices

Does Apple Cause Families to Go Hungry?

Posted on December 21, 2013

Apparently this man thinks Apple and taxes is correlated with Food Stamp cuts.

We abhor the cut in Food Stamps and blame a government with bad priorities. But it isn’t Apples fault. If its legal to not pay those taxes then let it be and fight hunger on so many other levels. The FDA can ban more toxins, community gardens supported by the Feds instead of spying on everyone, getting in touch with the political issues that allow a reduction in food stamps.

Medical Technology Start Ups

Theranos Responds

Posted on December 17, 2013

UPDATE: March 17, 2019 – This is an old post on Theranos. I began writing about Elizabeth Holmes in 2013. This is the first. Start here. An Almost Great Palo Alto Start Up To see all the posts listed – (click on older posts to get them all) from 2019 to 2013 (from hopeful beginnings to the fraud/the con) click on THERANOS

And to read the book, click BAD BLOOD

I have screenshots of everyone from DOD to Exec Office of President coming to website over the years with queries such as THERANOS FRAUD. Coming sometime this spring: my take, Theranos: The Facts Left Out

*****

Happy to get the facts, Theranos, and here they are. Thanks for this…

Dear Ann,

Thank you so much for your continued interest in Theranos. We saw your blog post from today, “If Theranos can do this, why not 23andme?”, and wanted to follow up with you to address several inaccuracies. We would appreciate your issuance of the following corrections:
Theranos did not open in Maryland. We currently have three Theranos Wellness Centers open to the public, located in Palo Alto and the Phoenix area.
Per the press release you referenced, Walgreens offers its own independent offering for CLIA-waived tests on a limited menu. This Walgreens offering is completely independent of Walgreens’ partnership with Theranos. Conversely, Theranos is a high-complexity CLIA-certified laboratory that currently requires physician-directed lab orders in order to collect and process samples.
Thank you in advance for your timely attention to this matter. We look forward to working with you in the future.

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read more – An Interview With James Johnson, CEO Vortis Technology