cranberryfarmer8's Profile

Thanks for the great post! Another way to approach solving the urban parking issue is to use an uber like service to match drivers to chauffeurs that park the car for the driver. Luxe is a startup aimed at just doing that – drivers use an app that allows them to call an chauffeur in advance, and using the GPS information, the chauffeurs meets the driver at a destination (say a restaurant), and takes the car from them. Then these chauffeurs (Luxe contractors) park the cars in set parking garages that partner with Luxe. 15 minutes before the driver is ready to leave the restaurant, he would then call the chauffeur to pick up the car and meet him at the restaurant. Similar to the Sidewalk Labs’ projects, services like Luxe are aimed at increasing the utilization at existing parking spaces.

In the screenshot of Beddit application, I noticed that it shows heart rate bpm. I’m wondering how the device captures this by only using an sensor under the bed sheet that does not have contact with the skin? I would love to compare Beddit’s heart rate data with say that of a FitBit to see if they match.

In addition to providing the user a lot of data about their sleep (I really like the “sleep score”), how can Beddit help users actually correct behavior and get better sleep? I think it could be good for Beddit to integrate gamefication concepts to its tracking software. For instance, if a user “levels up” by achieving a sleep score of 80+ every day for a week, and the user can share his achievement with his family and friends.

Great post! I agree with Greg’s comment above that one of the biggest barriers of NJ Transit moving to driverless trains is the people. The Pennsylvania trains system (SEPTA) has only very recently implemented an RFID card ticketing system that has been the technology for many public transit systems for years. Prior to this, you had to purchase tickets through cash or credit at a sales counter through a clerk. Then this ticket was checked onboard by the conductor. This was a antiquated and terribly inefficient system, and despite the technology being available, SEPTA took a very long time to adopt it. The public has frequently blamed the union for pushing back on these changes. Similar to NJ Transit, SEPTA has experience a few strikes that severely disturbed travel for many. I’m sure that there is likely many states with similar issues. In my opinion, we are not close to a future where states will adopt driverless public transportation systems. However, I would like to see privately owned train systems such as Amtrak adopt such a change first.

I think this is a genius idea for Disney – there seems to be a lot of wins for them, and the initial investment will be offset by increased revenues in park purchases, increased park ticket sales (if the overall customer experience improves), and sales of the band it self. The “magical-ness” of having a child’s favorite character surprise him/her is also an intangible win.

My only concern is the operating cost of having maintaining the use of these bands. Aside from the upfront investment, Disney probably will need to create a MagicBand IT Desk at each of the parks to deal with faulty bands or customers not know how to use the bands. I imagine that for a park with so many visitors, this would require a fairly large team of technical experts to troubleshoot issues. In addition, while Disney builds infrastructure accommodate for bands, they must still cater to patrons that do not adopt the band. For instance, restaurants will need to create separate workflows for waiting on customers with and without bands.

Very interesting topic! I’ve never heard of the Google Art Project before but I definitely plan to use it to check out museum collections before visiting. While it’s nice to feature classic pieces such as Starry Night, I think the real value of the Project may lie in emerging artists’ work that is less accessible by the masses. This can be achieved by partnering with smaller galleries that feature local artists. I would also love to see Google partner with Oculus to provide Virtual Reality (VR) tours through the Project. Perhaps users at home can put on their Oculus and experience one section of a gallery, this teaser will prompt people to get excited about the gallery experience and purchase tickets to visit in person.

This is a really interesting topic – perhaps healthcare is not the first thing that comes to mind when we think of climate change, but I completely agree that climate change will have a huge impact on healthcare. Mass General Hospital is a highly respected leader in research and treatment of many disease areas. I’m glad that its being proactive about making changes to be greener in light of climate change. I think this will set an example for other hospitals and hospital networks to do the same.

In the areas that will be most impacted by malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress, how have hospitals been preparing to handle the increase in number of patients due to climate change? There may be possibilities for hospitals networks such as Partners to work in collaboration with hospital networks in developing countries to increase hospital beds, overall, capacity, and physician availability.

Love the post! This is definitely a very relevant topic right now. Given the amount of support that the oil industry has provided to the GOP (and maybe other industries or organizations that would benefit from the GOP taking a stance against climate change), I wonder how many GOP senators/representatives actually believe that climate change is not real or not due to human activities. I feel like given the plethora of research and evidence supporting climate change, it has to be hard to take such a hard stance against it. I thought it was really interesting that Trump’s own organizations have made changes citing climate change but Trump refuses to acknowledge it officially. I’m curious to see how many other Republicans have also privately acted on climate change in their own lives or for their businesses, but still publicly deny it.

Really great post! For one of my consulting projects, our team stayed at a ski resort during the summer. Like WB, this resort heavily marketed its non-ski related services like its conference centers / hotel / hiking on the mountain around the summer months to keep business afloat. It actually partnered with our client to be the client’s official hotel for visiting business people. I think this will become a pattern across the industry as climate changes. Another thought is if the number of indoor ski parks will be on the rise? When I was in Dubai, I visited the Ski Dubai which is an indoor ski park inside of a mall in the desert. Perhaps more areas of the world will resort to indoor skiing in the future.

In class we discussed the pros and cons of IKEA expanding their supply chain to own or lease forests to have better control over sustainability. Given the scale of McDonalds and the sheer number/size of supplier it needs to work with to obtain raw ingredients, I wonder what type of consideration McDonald’s has given to owning farms. It would certainly be a deviation from their current business model but I would assume could reduce cost and give McDonald’s more control.

Seems like there is a lot of awareness building that can be done around the new technology that Alter NRG provides. My understanding is the MSW consists of all wastes from an area (household, sewer /drains, general public trash, etc). Is there a process by which this is sorted after (or before) dumping into a landfill? It seems like if the waste can be sorted into different categories of feedstock, we could configure the plasma gasification technology to optimize for energy generation for that particular type of feedstock. I wonder how much effort this would be and how much addition energy could be produced.