Comments on: GE needs the data analytics minds of the Valley (and knows it) http://gigaom.com/2012/11/29/ge-needs-the-data-analytics-minds-of-the-valley-and-knows-it/ Tue, 21 May 2013 14:06:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Chuck Mahon http://gigaom.com/2012/11/29/ge-needs-the-data-analytics-minds-of-the-valley-and-knows-it/#comment-1226143 Mon, 03 Dec 2012 18:51:39 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=589395#comment-1226143 Nice piece Katie! Have you visited our new Software and Analytics Center in San Ramon? (you should)

Chuck

]]> By: Dan http://gigaom.com/2012/11/29/ge-needs-the-data-analytics-minds-of-the-valley-and-knows-it/#comment-1220279 Fri, 30 Nov 2012 18:34:56 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=589395#comment-1220279 FYI – the GE Software Center is in San Ramon CA, not New York. http://www.ge.com/careers/ge_global_software_center.html

The center in Niskayuna is the Global Research Center which has been there for a while.

]]> By: Katie Fehrenbacher http://gigaom.com/2012/11/29/ge-needs-the-data-analytics-minds-of-the-valley-and-knows-it/#comment-1218413 Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:37:17 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=589395#comment-1218413 Thanks DavidS! You are as civil as you are intelligent.

]]> By: DavidS http://gigaom.com/2012/11/29/ge-needs-the-data-analytics-minds-of-the-valley-and-knows-it/#comment-1218389 Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:28:09 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=589395#comment-1218389 Awful post, evidently written by a complete ignoramus.

1) Aircraft engines are not “old-school technology.” In fact, aircraft engines are among the world’s most advanced applications of state-of-the-art developments in physics, engineering, and materials science. There’s not much out there that could possibly be more high-tech.

2) “a technology which is pretty alien to the multitude of web and mobile startups that call the San Francisco, Bay Area home” is ridiculous. There are thousands of people in the valley who are involved in hardware design and manufacturing for mobile devices, PCs, servers, autos, avionics systems, audio, video, consumer electronics, and almost everything else that uses semiconductors and microprocessors.

3) “The one percent efficiency savings for things like jet engines, rail roads, locomotives, and power plants will come from analytics. It’s not sexy — particularly compared to projects like the Jawbone UP.”

Are you serious? You think Jawbone UP is sexier than designing jet engines that produce 115,000 lbs of thrust and trains that go 250 mph?

Jet engines, railroads, and power plants are FAR more important to the global economy than some get-rich-quick VC’s silly portfolio play. The author would not have been able to write this useless post without any of these.

More to the point, a 1% efficiency increase, in any of these sectors, while not especially ambitious, still means real, tangible results – less pollution, less demand for natural resources, less waste, greater power reliability.

At a time when the roads, airports, power plants, public utilities, and trains in the US are worse than many third world countries, including almost every piece of infrastructure in California — among the many other serious problems we have that can be solved by talented engineers — the last thing we should do, this blog included, should be to waste time, attention, and money on useless things that do nothing for anyone except make even more money for rich people.

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