The intern “station” at gap intelligence is more or less a mobile unit. In fact, it has already moved twice in the three months that I’ve been here. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy the change of scenery. The new locale even boasts a window view. On the desk to my right is a slightly less visually appealing pile of out-of-commission monitors, keyboards, PC towers, and the like (although it certainly could be worse). We have affectionately dubbed it “The Computer Graveyard.”
One day, while working a “Graveyard” shift, I started thinking about our little collection. All jokes aside, think about how quickly we find electronic equipment obsolete and how much stuff we accumulate because of that. For instance, if you had to count how many electronic devices you own, how many do you think it would be? Of course we all instantly think of the essentials – our cell phones, computers, and televisions. But what about everything else? Not counting household appliances, I can list around twenty separate pieces of electronic equipment in my home (that’s not even counting the miscellaneous cord drawer). And at least six of those are either broken or outdated and not being used – or in other words, they’re electronic waste (e-waste). Home gaming systems, landline phones, printers, fax and copy machines, laptops, keyboards, speakers, VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray players… the list goes on. Once these items are junk, they are considered e-waste.
Electronics probably have the highest turnover rates out of any consumer products, yet they’re some of the most difficult to recycle properly. These days, most of us are aware that the electronics we use in our homes every day are filled with toxins like lead and mercury. You may have even seen disheartening images of poor children overseas rummaging through e-waste landfills for salvageable materials to sell. What you might not know is that many of the companies in the United States that call themselves “recyclers” are still just shipping that waste to poorer countries with less regulation on hazardous waste disposal.
Recycling is becoming an everyday practice for more and more of us all the time. Most of us have public recycling available for curbside pickup, although electronics are generally prohibited. If you work in an office, your company probably participates in some sort of e-waste recycling program. It’s pretty much standard procedure (and in most cases, mandatory) for businesses to do so. But how much do you really know about what happens to those electronics? And consumers are still responsible for generating the greatest amount of e-waste, but they don’t exactly make it easy for us “little people” to recycle old electronics. But, there are places that will accept many of your household electronics for free, or even pay you for them! You just have to know what’s out there. Thankfully, if you’re able to read this blog, then you’re also able to access the websites that can hook you up with programs in your area. Check out some of these links to get started. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, search, baby, search!
In California alone, more than 21,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and about 192,000 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in the U.S. last year.
Since this is an issue that hits close to home, this Mothers Day Weekend my family and I participated in our first “Race for the Cure” in Sacramento, California. Our team of roughly 30 people walked and ran 5km and raised more than $5,000 to help fund innovative outreach and awareness programs for medically underserved communities and for national breast cancer research. We joined about 22,000 others and together we raised an estimated $2 million! Wow!
The best part is, this is just one of hundreds of races. The event in Sacramento is but a blip on the radar – there’s a race in nearly every major city in the U.S. plus at least 11 other countries, including of all places, Tanzania! For sure the Gap Intelligence team will out in force at the San Diego Race on Sunday November 7. Right guys??
To find an event in your home town, check out the Susan G. Komen For The Cure web site to learn more. Chances are, this is a cause that will affect all of us one way or another throughout our lives. So do it for all the beloved moms, grandmothers, daughters, sisters, wives, and girlfriends that make all our lives special and worth living!
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My new “All Time Favorite Picture” was just recently posted on NASA’s Goddard Photo and Video Flikr account. Captured by the Mars Exploration Rover Unit Spirit One from the surface of that distant planet, it is the first recorded image of Earth from a planet beyond the moon. I doubt that Buzz Aldrin could have held a camera so steady, even if he placed it on the lunar module.
I love this picture because it shows just how small we truly are and triggers curiosity on what really may be out there. Make no mistake, I am certainly not suggesting that space aliens are booking Star Destroyer tickets to visit us any time soon, but I have to admit that if I were sitting next to Spirit One and gazed at that teeny little light up there – I would bet the farm that nothing could possibly live on it.
For me, if anything, this picture puts us all into proper perspective.I don’t’ think that I am going to get too upset when my tomatoes don’t grow this year or if my favorite hockey team falls short of the Stanley Cup (again…).
The first half of our birthday started with a company kick-off meeting. We discussed who Gap Intelligence is, how we can get stronger, and some of the exciting stuff in the pipeline (DCV3, the Gap iPhone App for retail collectors, and new categories). We move fast as a company and it’s always cool to reflect on how much we’ve grown, even within the last several months.
When I was a kid, turning 7 meant that I got my first pair of roller blades and a new ninja turtles VHS. But most importantly, it meant I was allowed to invite friends over for all-you-can-eat pizza, fruit snacks, juice boxes, and a trip to the arcade! As it turns out, there is an arcade for “grown-ups” today and we got to celebrate Gap’s birthday in style. After the company meeting, we went to Dave and Busters, which has awesome food and all the arcade staples: Mrs. Pac-Man, Skee-Ball, mini basketball, and air hockey.
There were only two things that reminded me that I wasn’t a kid: I had a beer instead of a juice box and the air hockey puck kept flying off the table. I guess it’s a good sign that I’m now slightly stronger than I was in first grade. Overall, it was a good time and a fun way to welcome the new Gapsters to the team.
I have long been bullish on the impact that the smart phone / device industry would have on printing. Many, many of my counterparts believe that the iPhone, anDroid, iPad, and Microsoft’s upcoming Digital Journal will eliminate the need to print. I, on the other hand, honestly believe that we are not installing hundreds of millions of smart phones across Earth, but we are actually installing hundreds of millions of little computers that will one day need to print. The need to print from a smart device will come naturally, much like how printing developed around 5 – 8 years after the birth of the personal PC. Early personal computer users were first in “shock and awe” around their new found device (like your iPhone) and it took some time for users to generate printing needs for software developers to address.
They just haven’t found a need to print……yet. It will come.
Take for example Microsoft’s new Digital Journal, a product coming out later this year that I really, really, want. The journal will replace my $1.50 composition notebook that I take to meetings. Questions: Where is the opportunity for me to generate prints with my composition notebook? Where are the opportunities for me to generate prints with my Digital Journal? I agree.
Just to recap, gap intelligence is a market intelligence company that helps manufacturers of imaging and printing products stay on top of their markets.We function as the “eyes and ears” in the marketplace for our clients and follow products, pricing, promotions, advertisements, specifications, end-caps, and POP stickers in every possible channel.
Through our first seven years, gap intelligence has stuck to the imaging and printing industries, following everything from ink tanks, paper, laser printers, digital cameras, and walk-up copiers.2010 marks a significant change in our coverage as we have expanded outside of the printing and imaging space.
To kick off the New Year, gap intelligence was thrilled to announce the launch of its e-Reader market intelligence service.We are the very first research firm to employ a dedicated analyst following the small nuances of the e-Reader market – capturing tactical marketing intelligence information, finding insight and strategy from the data, and presenting our information in very usable formats.If you haven’t heard, e-Readers have quickly become a mainstream consumer electronics item and may do to the book industry what the iPod did to music.Our constant market tracking and intelligence services will guide e-Reader makers to make smart decisions now to thrive in what will be a highly competitive and turbulent market.
For the second quarter, gap intelligence is thrilled to announce its first market intelligence services that cover the mobile computing industries.We are now tracking notebooks, netbooks, and tablets in all shapes and sizes – desktop replacement, thin and light, touch enabled tablets, and even Apple’s iPad.For those of you in the computing industry who may not have heard of gap intelligence, I say to you “Congratulations!”You can now see your market in detail never before offered and receive support from a team of analysts who will give you the insight needed to make smart business decisions.
For you lucky mobile computing manufacturers, you now have access to the service and support that gap intelligence delivers on these product categories:
Mobile Computing
- e-Readers
- Digital Frames
- Projectors
- Inkjet Printers
- AiO & Fax Machines
- B&W Laser Printers
- Color Laser Printers
- Ink & Photo Supplies
- Print Media
- Digital Cameras
- Copier / MFP
- Total Cost of Ownership
- European Price Monitoring
- Brazil, Russia, China Price Monitoring
It is absolutely inexcusable that I have not told you about the 2009 Hirooka Awards (third annual) – a night filled with celebrity, style, and fashion! The Hirooka Awards is the night for gap-ians to celebrate our accomplishments both as a team and highlight those individual achievements that helped make the year so great.
The 2009 Hirooka Awards were hosted last December (should have been blogged a long time ago) at the glamorous House Blues in downtown San Diego, California. Our celebrities walked down the red carpet, talked to the hordes of curious press, and posed for thousands of paparazzi snaps along the way. The evening started by some special “gap university” awards – for those whose experiences through 2009’s global economic downturn earned them a MBA. Master’s of Business Administration degrees to Tom Foster, Sarina Dahukey, Jake Fishman, Michelle Cowan, and Chris Barnes!
While everyone at gap is a winner, here is a break down of this year’s Hirooka Award winners!
Rookie of the Year: Gurpreet Kaur (Market Analyst)
PT Players of the Year:
Deron Kershaw (Research Analyst)
Taryn Popplewell (System Ops)
Christine Abuyen ( Research Analyst)
Quote of the Year: Laurel Popplewell (System Ops)
Writer of the Year: Sarina Dahukey (Senior Analyst)
Presenter of the Year: Jake Fishman (Senior Analyst)
Leadership Award: Katie Hess (System Ops)
Can’t Live Without You Award: Nicole Manko (Market Analyst)
Crawl to Sprint (fast learner): Joshua Stone (Research Analyst)
Smells Like Team Spirit Award: Laurel Popplewell (System Ops)
The Sarina Dahukey Most Organized Stamp Collection Award (most organized desk) Erin Vogelsanger (System Ops)
Best Dressed: Nicole Manko (Market Analyst)
Nickname of the Year: Gurpreet “Goopie” Kaur
People’s Choice: Michelle Cowan (Systems Manager)
Most Valuable Player: Michelle Cowan (Systems Manager)
Congratulations to our Hirooka Award winners and good luck to our 2010 nominees!
Gap Intelligence fans should fear not. This century’s longest total solar eclipse has come to a close and the sun is still shining here in San Diego. In fact, recent stats from Pingdom show that the Gap Intelligence DataCenterUntraceable movie
has run this year at 99.99% uptime. Wow. That’s a lot of sunshine!
Call it divine intervention, call it astrophysics, call it a handshake-deal with Apollo (the Sun god, not the defunct printer company). Neither recession nor planetary alignment can slow us down.
NASA has a very cool video that shows the path of today’s umbra and penumbra shadows (umbra is the part in “total eclipse”).
And if you thought that was cool, wait until you see GapDatacenter.com v3.0 — coming soon to our valued subscribers around the world (even the parts without sun!)
All too often new I am exposed to new ideas and technologies that have one of two immediate affects on my limited intellect.1) The technology of said invention is so complicated and so daunting in its scale and scope that I can’t appreciate its potential application.
2) In the rare instance I understand the technology, I have no idea how the application is sellable.
Personally, I have attempted to take the “Me” out of scenario #2.As I have gotten older, I have slowly come to grips that I am no longer the fancy of new entertainment and technology.The Alibi downloadKiss the Girls divx I am not suppose to get Transformers 2.
I am not suppose to understand how any particular application will better my day – movies and new ideas are for people about 20 years younger than me.Election trailer
Yellowbird developed a 360 degree video camera, the software to stitch those images together, and the player that allows users to interact with the rolling video.
Imagine advertisers using this technology to promote new products.How about strapping a 360 degree camera on top of a race car for live streaming 360 degree video?Heck, in 5 years maybe Google will replace its entire street view mapping service with a national network of Yellowbird videos – not only can I get directions to the park, but I watch turn by turn video to get me there! Yellowbird’s technology can be liscensed for endless applications, changing how we view online videos.
