Will we recognize our robot overlords when we meet them?

“Say Cheese!”

The burst of light to my right made me pause: my photo had just been taken. Sure, the sign at the Microsoft Maker Faire tent said entering the area gave them permission to use my image, but I hadn’t quite expected anything so sudden. Or bright. I turned to find the paparazzo, and saw no one. And then, dropping my gaze some two feet, I met EDDIE for the first time.

Armed with a camera, EDDIE takes pictures of the visitors.

We regarded each other—to the extent that we could—for a few seconds before EDDIE determined that there were more suitable subjects nearby. EDDIE rolled off to the center of a more photo-friendly group. Delighted, they mugged for the camera.

Most of us are fantastic complainers. When someone doesn't meet our expectations, we let them know. We may even let their boss or mother know.

There's nothing wrong with expecting excellence, and taking steps to get it. The problem is, we tend to take excellence--and thoughtfulness, and kindness, and joyfulness--for granted.

When things go as we expect, we don't even notice or acknowledge it. Dennis Prager refers to this as the "broken tile" syndrome: look at a ceiling with one broken tile, and where is your eye naturally drawn? To the broken tile, of course. Not to the hundreds of whole ones.

Everyone can recognize a great manager a mile away, so why is it so hard to find one? We all remember a few that are “legends in their own mind”, but that doesn’t do it. In fact, the clue here is that the view in your mind is the only one that matters, rather than the other way around.

Almost every one of us in business can remember that one special manager in their career who exemplifies the norm, who commanded our respect, and treated us like a friend, even in the toughest of personal or business crises.

Step, step, hit. It was the rhythm of a routine play for New Orleans Saints linebacker Jim Kovach, one that he was following with his usual precision during the second game of the 1985 season. As Broncos quarterback John Elway handed the ball off to a fullback, Kovach took two steps and lowered his shoulder into the 270-pound offensive guard whose job it was to keep him away from the action. Step, step, hit . . . pop.

The 230-pound Kovach felt a pop in his left knee as his body crashed into the guard. Back on the sideline, trainers prodded and pulled on his leg in an attempt to diagnose the injury. Kovach had completed medical school by attending classes and interning during the previous six off seasons, so he well understood what was wrong. He had torn a knee ligament called the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Had he known then what he knows now—that he’s genetically predisposed to soft-tissue injuries such as ACL tears—he might have trained differently and perhaps avoided the injury, at least that day. As it was, the tear soon ended his football career.

The geeks on your gift list are always hard to buy for. They already have the latest gadgets. Gift cards can seem lame. And a batch of homemade fudge just won't cut it for that special scientist in your life.

Luckily, there are plenty of great gifts out there on the Internet that will fit the bill for even the most discerning researchers on your list.

Fa-la-lassa fever Killer microbes seem much less threatening when they're stuffed and cuddly. Giant Microbes, makers of the popular plush microorganisms, have released a set of limited edition Christmas ornaments featuring the neuron, the common cold, E. coli, Epstein-Barr Virus, and the Red Amoeba, decked out in festive holiday garb.

So how have your 2011 email campaign efforts measured up against other people’s worldwide?

Enter email marketing benchmarks by various industries:

Benchmark email marketing statistics offer a glimpse into the broad performance of various industries and industry sectors. These studies usually go beyond traditional metrics reports to provide top-level observations which enable companies to gain a better view of where they stand.

The metrics on delivery, open and click rates provided here are based on results from over 200 million emails sent by 3 590 of a major international ESP’s users in the period October 2010 to October 2011, and are probably the first in-depth metrics of their kind to be produced for South Africa. One thing this does is give an indication of how well this emerging market country is performing in relation to a highly developed superpower.

When beliefs change everything changes. With each year that passes one thing is certain, things will change. However the pace of change is no longer as usual and instead has become unusual. These unusual changes are influencing our beliefs.

Whether for business or personal one change is certain, what used to be impossible is now possible.

The economy is in a state of flux as are the market dynamics for every market segment. If you haven’t noticed markets have been in turmoil for some time and this turmoil is changing how markets work. Business as usual is out and business as unusual is in.

How did you do on quantities for your Thanksgiving feast? Are you faced with the not-so-enticing prospect of eating turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes for the next several weeks?

Just in case that might be the case, I spent a little time searching for recipes calling for cooked turkey. Yes, of course, you can plow through the foods in their original form, but I like to shake things up a little and transform leftovers in to a new dish.

My criteria for suitable recipes to pass along to you were that the dishes were 1) delicious, 2) quick to prepare, 3) use what would probably be on hand (who wants to go back to the store today?) and 4) have an unusual or unexpected flavor. I think I have some fun and tasty offerings for you.

What’s coming up for 2012?

Local venture capitalists expect strong interest in health IT companies next year and plenty of opportunities to align with Nashville-area entrepreneurs and startups.

“There’s a couple of trends you will see interest around, and one is companies that can help with payment challenges that you see with the consumer part of health care,” said Don Mundie, founder and managing partner at Memphis-based Delta Capital Management    .

Picture a dad on a Saturday morning toting a bike with a broken chain and a disappointed kid. Dad’s already been to the hardware store, with no luck. Two stops later, exasperated and increasingly frustrated, both father and son find their way to Zane’s Cycles in Branford, CT.

Within minutes they find out what will fix the chain: a 25-cent master link. The salesman at Zane’s hands it over, with a firm “No charge.” Zane’s has decided to give these parts away. Anything that costs a buck or under, they give to any customer who needs it. Though small in price, these parts are usually attached to a frustrating experience for the customer.

Do you tweet in your sleep? Have you ruined dates by posting status updates during dinner? Do you IM your significant other…when he’s across the room? If all these (and more) are true, you are addicted to social media.

We’ve all seen it. The person you’re talking to checks her Facebook status while you’re engrossed in conversation, thinking you won’t notice. I’ve been to networking meetups with bloggers where not a single person is making eye contact. They’re all too busy tweeting what a great time they’re having to actually live in the moment.

So you've got an idea for a better mousetrap, but you need money to get it to market. What do you do?

According to entrepreneurs and investors in startup companies, here's the plan: Pray for angels.

Financing from "angel investors" — mainly rich folks with money to invest — is a crucial source for capital for high-tech entrepreneurs.

But to get this financing, you need to develop a working prototype and put it in the hands of potential customers, according to people who invest in startups.

A lack of progress for battery technology is (arguably) the single biggest barrier for gadgets, electric vehicles and the power grid. But there continues to be innovation, like last week researchers at Northwestern University unveiled technology that can boost gadget battery life by ten and charge a battery in minutes instead of hours. And there’s hundreds of researchers, entrepreneurs, universities and large companies working on battery breakthroughs. Here’s 25 you should know about:

1). Seeo: Seeo was founded in 2007 and formerly based in Berkeley, which is home to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where Mohit Singh, Seeo co-founder, and his fellow co-founders, Hany Eitouni and Nitash Balsara, first developed the technology. The company has now moved to Hayward, Calif., and the company’s innovation is to produce lithium ion batteries using a dry polymer electrolyte, instead of a more conventional liquid electrolyte (typically made up of a lithium salt in an organic solvent). The electrolyte is the medium that shuttled lithium ions back and forth between the cathode and the anode to charge and discharge the battery cell.

According to a recent report by Ernst & Young, Canadian entrepreneurs’ new business registrations outperform all mature market G20 countries.

“Canada’s ideal environment and proactive frame of mind are setting the standard for entrepreneurial culture. In fact, 88 per cent  of survey respondents agree these qualities are putting the country on the map as a startup paradise,” says Colleen McMorrow, Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneurial Services Leader in Canada. “It’s imperative that countries around the world grappling with the effects of economic uncertainty follow suit and invest in their entrepreneurs.”

Canada offers young entrepreneurs low business startup costs, funding from public aid, a well-regulated banking sector, a highly-educated workforce and a variety of coaching programs that go a long way in promoting entrepreneurship, says the report.

We have all read the headlines. ‘The European Financial Crisis Turns Ugly’, ‘Worst Crisis Since the ‘30s”, ‘Europe Financial Crisis Deepens as Greek Government Teeters’. Let’s face it, in this era of globalization the economic landscape has taken a turn for the worse. Every day, we see mass protests and strikes splashed across TV screens and newspapers. But behind the disappointment, there are people who are working on changing the headlines.

There is an urgency for world leaders to meet and discuss how they will map out Europe’s recovery in a top-down process, but it’s not that often we hear about the individuals who want to make a change from the bottom up. The same individuals who have the potential to create the next Facebook, Google or Twitter. In this blog post, I want to share a compelling story of my three day experience working with an outstanding group of individuals. Where did this all take place? STARTup Live Athens.

The Nevada Capital Investment Corp. is looking to generate an increase in private equity and venture capital funding over the next few years in an effort to create jobs and attract businesses to the Silver State.

It's a difficult task: Private equity and venture capital are almost nonexistent.

Funding for startups, for example, has been sluggish at best this year in Nevada, with only one investment completed in the first nine months of 2011, according to data from Dow Jones VentureSource.

One of the dangers of entrepreneurial enthusiasm is a willingness to be all things to all people, trying to capitalize on every potential opportunity.

The problem with that is that you can suffer from a lack of focus.

If you are putting both time and effort into doing lots of different things, you could easily wind up doing them, at best, in an average way that offers no competitive edge.

Like any good fishing trip, the effort to nurture entrepreneurs in St. Louis generates stories about the ones that got away. Too often, startup companies with promising technologies move to California or elsewhere in search of funding.

In the past couple of years, though, St. Louis has landed some catches of its own. Lured by the area's rich research assets and a growing number of funding sources, entrepreneurs have moved here from places such as Louisville, Nashville and upstate New York.

New crowdfunding sites are springing up every month and more and more entrepreneurs are looking to these sites for money. Despite all the hoopla, crowdfunding is not currently a good alternative for most start-up or small businesses. Here are five things you should know about crowdfunding.

Projects, Not Businesses

The majority of crowdfunding sites cater to one-time creative or charitable projects, not ongoing businesses. The funding comes in the form of donations. The funders may get some type of reward — such as books, or invitations to films or concerts — related to the projects. But they do not get their money back. Two of the most successful sites that serve the creative market are Kickstarter and IndieGoGo.

I don’t know about you, but I try to avoid technological discussions with my parents. Even though they are relatively tech aware, they tend to be Team Windows and I am Team Mac. Also: While the “My cool grandma owns an iPad” trope is totally ubiquitous and real, older people tend to be over-sensitive about their level of tech acumen. It’s a fear of mortality thing, I’m thinking.

That’s why when Alexis Madrigal came with the idea to turn Black Friday into “Update Your Parents’ Browser Day,” I winced, despite holding universal modern web browsing standards as something to aspire to. As part of what might be the last generation to remember what life was like before the World Wide Web, the idea of having to explain something as simple as a browser update to the people who bought me my first computer — and, you know, gave me life — strikes me as sort of sad.