All of 2020 and half of 2021, I was working until 2 a.m. every day because I was writing the code that runs the company,” says Grant Petty, CEO and founder of Blackmagic Design. The 53-year-old billionaire isn’t kidding. He despises outsourcing, so he literally writes all the SQL programs that run internal processes at his 1,500-employee, $576 million (revenue) Melbourne, Australia-based company. He’s also known for starring in hour-long instructional videos for Blackmagic products like the Ursa Mini Pro 12K digital cinema camera. When the pandemic struck, Blackmagic (which manufactures all 209 of its products itself, unheard-of in the hardware business unless your name is Samsung or Sony) needed to share parts among its three factories in Australia, Singapore and Indonesia. Rather than hire someone, or even delegate the task internally, Petty rewrote the workflow software connecting inventory databases. If clubbiness, opaque accounting and exorbitant costs epitomize companies in Hollywood’s ecosystem, then Petty and his defiant, do-it-yourself approach make Blackmagic Design a tear-down-the-walls revolutionary. His 21-year-old business is best known for making low-cost professional cinema cameras, electronic switchers and other specialized gear used in television and film production. It also makes free software known as DaVinci Resolve, used for color grading, special effects and to edit video and audio. Blackmagic’s products are behind some big-budget, Oscar-nominated flicks such as Don’t Look Up and Spider-Man: No Way Home, but its primary customers are YouTubers and budget-conscious independent filmmakers. Over the past couple years, that market exploded as lockdowns caused a surge in demand for professional-quality home equipment.
The World’s Smartest Robot Is Living in Vancouver
Sanctuary AI says building human-level artificial intelligence that can execute human tasks safely requires a deep understanding of the living mind. Hello World’s Ashlee Vance heads to Vancouver to see the startup’s progress toward bringing robots to life.
Ask A Roboticist: Meet Josh | Boston Dynamics
Meet Josh, a mechanical engineer at Boston Dynamics. Hear his perspective on what goes into building a robot–from learning the right skills, to collaborating across teams, to designing and testing new parts.
Web 3.0 and the myth of a blockchain revolution
Rufus demystifies Web3.0 and the myth of the blockchain revolution by analysing problems with the tech, human psychology, and conflicting incentives.
Rufus Loveridge is a 29-year-old MBA 2023 student at London Business School. British citizen born in London, he read Russian at the University of Bristol and lived in St. Petersburg and Moscow in 2012/13. Prior to LBS, he worked in M&A for Lazard in London, covering consumer goods and industrial companies. He is also a partner in a family-owned property, education and investment company. His interests lie within entrepreneurship, EdTech, VC investing.
What Happens If a Crypto Platform Such as Coinbase or Celsius Goes Bankrupt? | WSJ
When cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius froze user accounts amid a plunge in valuations, it sent ripples across the industry and raised questions about what happens to user assets if a crypto platform files for bankruptcy. WSJ’s Vicky Ge Huang explains.
New 2022 graphene battery launch: 8-minute charge time. 350-mile range!
Graphene nanotechnology is set to be one of the most exciting and ground breaking technologies of the 21st century. Nanotechnology has already revolutionised medicine, construction and industry. And now graphene is about to become a reality in electric vehicle batteries, increasing energy density by 40% or more, and reducing charge times to just a few minutes. Is this the push we’ve been waiting for to move EVs into the mainstream?
FINALLY! A Graphene Battery That Could Change Everything | Answers With Joe
We’ve been hearing about the potential of graphene for decades, and yet very few of the big promises have come to pass. But a new aluminum graphene battery design is coming out this year that could charge a phone in less than a minute, and it may be the future of energy storage.
Solid Hydrogen Explained (Again) – Is it the Future of Energy Storage?
Near the end of last year I published a video on solid hydrogen storage and it got a lot of questions, critiques, and push back from some of you. In some cases, rightfully so, and in other cases, not so much. Based on the more constructive critiques, the video focused too much on one company, Plasma Kinetics and their claims. It didn’t give enough context around metal hydrides in general. In trying to simplify a pretty complex topic, I oversimplified some things, which created problems. So is solid hydrogen storage actually a thing? Is solid hydrogen currently being used? And what about Plasma Kinetics? Let’s take another crack at solid hydrogen energy storage and try to address some of the shortcomings of my last video.
Google Engineer on His Sentient AI Claim
Google Engineer Blake Lemoine joins Emily Chang to talk about some of the experiments he conducted that lead him to think that LaMDA was a sentient AI, and to explain why he is now on administrative leave.
Charles Hoskinson Testifies at The Future of Digital Asset Regulation
Charles Hoskinson received a formal invitation to speak before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture about Blockchain and Cryptocurencies on June 23rd in Washington, where he testified about the future of digital asset regulation.