Weekend Digest: The Future Of Wireless & Sam Walton’s Olympic Odyssey

For our weekend business readers:

THE FUTURE OF WIRELESS
Trying to predict what's going to happen in the explosive wireless industry for the next five years might be like trying to catch a greased pig. It just keeps slipping in another direction.  But wireless industry execs give it a go in an on-line posting by RCRWireless U.S.

Executives from AT&T, Qualcomm, Cisco, and Ruckus Wireless were asked to give their industry predictions and as would be expected, opinions varied.

Here's part of one analysis:

Padmasree Warrior, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Strategy Officer, Cisco Systems: “Existing mobile network infrastructures simply cannot sustain the growth we’re seeing on their own. Tomorrow’s mobile Internet must span multiple networks and deliver seamless and highly secure mobile experiences. This requires an architectural approach powered by a cloud-intelligent network of networks.”

To find out more of how the experts think wireless networks will change over the next five years, go to this link.

SAM WALTON & THE OLYMPICS OF THE MIND
Soon the London Olympic Games will unfold for athletes who have trained for years to compete.  But in business can you train your mind to run a marathon?

Yes, says Forbes, but like athletes, it takes commitment and training.

They need to spend time mentally working out—exercising their idea muscles. In my experience, and what I have found in my research, the best innovators do this all the time, not just when they’re in a brainstorming session at work. They’re engaged in daily training, though it’s hardly a chore for them because they take pleasure in the search for ideas.

Go inside the Forbes piece to learn why its writers think Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton was one of the gurus of mind Olympics.

When Walton was nosing around a competitor’s store, he was not doing pointless mental calisthenics.  He was in the game, getting real ideas.  That is the principal way of exercising idea muscles. Aristotle said, “What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing.”  We practice idea work in the same general sense that a physician practices medicine — by doing it.

Learn what professional habits “the pursuit of the mind” can bring by clicking here.

WORK FROM HOME?… MAYBE NOT
So you want to work from home?  A report from The Wall Street Journal says that may not be such a good idea.

A new study suggests workers are judged harshly for not showing up at the office. Despite advances in teleworking, smartphones, and Skype, it appears that face time really does matter.

The Journal article goes in-depth on the study and how “passive face time” counts.

Workers who are seen at their desks during regular work hours are considered “responsible” and “dependable,” they wrote: “Just being seen at work, without any information about what you’re actually doing, leads people to think more highly of you.”

Read the entire story to find out more about the competence levels co-workers attribute stay-at-homers, and if you are committed to working at home, learn ways you can counter this bias from both fellow employees as well as managers.

TEEN SUMMER JOB MARKET IS BETTER
Even though the competition is tough, Marketpl

ace.org says companies hiring teens for the summer are on the upswing.

Job placement executive John Challenger sees more companies hiring teens now than the past five years. That's good news for older workers, too. It means they might be finding real jobs, not just summer jobs.

It's an interesting analysis that prospective teen workers and parents should read. You can access it here.

ORCHESTRA FANTASY CAMP
So you had this fantasy to play the tuba in an orchestra setting with a maestro music director fanning his baton furiously as you strive to hit the notes on cue.

Well for a $1,750 donation to the Baltimore Symphony, that's what an orchestra of amateur musicians did and one of them, Daniel J. Watkin, a clarinetist, chronicled his experience in the New York Times.

I was one of 104 amateur musicians who had signed up for the Baltimore Symphony’s BSO Academy, a unique week-long program to give amateurs an education in orchestral life. It was also a good way for the orchestra, at a minimum of $1,750 a head, to bring in desperately needed revenue and bond with the public.

The camp also gave Watkin an inside look at the professional musicians and their travails in times of budget reductions and “who are living through a demoralizing period of pay cuts, defections, unfilled positions and a feeling they are unappreciated, had complicated reactions.”

We sat next to the Baltimore players, drank beer with them and sipped from their decades of musical wisdom. We experienced the obsessive nature of orchestra musicians and felt their physical pain, self-doubt and, once in a while, supreme confidence.

Find out more about Watkin's week with the symphony as a player and insider at this link.

ONE LINE, ONE PORTRAIT
Amusing Planet has the story and illustrations of an artist “who draws portraits that consist of a single unbroken line that neither crosses over or ends. It’s just one long loop.” It’s pretty amazing.

He calls himself “renbo.”

There is actually a name for this kind of art – it’s called TSP Art, because it’s constructed by solving instances of the classic computer science algorithmic problem called the Traveling Salesman Problem.

But renbo's works are not computer-generated and to view the artist's “one long loop” portraits of familiar faces and iconic designs click here.

HIGH-TECH SUPERMARKETS
How is technology impacting your shopping experience? Mashable.com takes a look at 9 ways supermarkets have gone high-tech.

You'll be familiar with a few of the technology advances, but others are just a signal of what you can soon expect at the local Kroger or Walmart.

Self-Serve Scanning:  Earlier this year, Catalina Marketing bought Boston-based startup Modiv Media. Modiv’s hand-held in-store scanners as well as its mobile app enable shoppers to scan bar codes and let customers ring up purchases as they stroll through supermarket aisles. That means there’s no wait for a cashier to check a customer out at the end. The company’s Scan It! Mobile app is free on iPhone and Android and can be used at Stop & Shop stores.

Read the full story at this link.