Luzme searches cheap eBooks, eyes your next bookmark!
eBooks are all the same right? Not so when the prices vary so much! The eBooks search site Luzme is helping people across the world search for their favourite eBook
at the best price. The ticker on the main page shows most recent price changes logged and you can login to create your own watch list to notify you when a price drops below a certain level.
Setup in 2008 by Rachel Willmer, now covering all the major eBooks stores (Apple, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony) and many you’ll never have heard of, Luzme is setting it’s sights high as the search engine of choice in USA, UK, Canada and Australia when looking for your next digital literary escape.
There’s even a RESTful API available for developers who are looking to search eBooks in their own applications. It’s free and allows you to query up to 500 eBook prices per day. Not a bad idea letting someone else do the hard work if you need that data!
Give Luzme a whirl next time you’re on the hunt for an eBook, you might even find it becomes your favourite browser bookmark!
Whisky Web Edinburgh wants Scotland to bottle its geeky goodness.
Sponsored by some of the worlds leading technology startup success stories (Github, 10gen), the inaugural Whisky Web (@whiskyweb) in Edinburgh 13/14th 
April (@thehubedinburgh) is bringing together two of my favourite things: technology and alcohol! Despite the name, the emphasis is on the tech with two conference tracks and some high profile speakers. Day one is topping and tailing the day with keynotes from Josh Holmes(@joshholmes) – Microsoft and David Zülke(@dzuelke) – Bitextender with a diverse range of engineering and development theory talk in between. Since this is Scotland, Bruichladdich whisky expert Craig Johnstone (@whiskycraig) will also be on hand throughout the day to educate our ‘merkin cousins on the finest malt in the land or just in case things get too serious. Scots might also learn a thing or two!
Day 2 is a collaborative hack day held at the ever impressive dynamic earth facility in Holyrood Park. An opportunity to “get your geek on”, mix with like minded technical web experts and network your face off – this is an opportunity to share ideas, iterate code and be part of the abundance mentality technology movement we so desperately need in Scotland’s scene. Who knows, you might find a business idea, coding partner or even a new favourite whisky!
As an event it looks like a cracking idea, there’s some real industry heavyweights behind it and of course being Scottish there’s a dram or two involved.
If you can’t make it, don’t worry, we’ll be reporting throughout the day as well as post event to bring you the highlights from Scotland’s whisky, web and technology scene.
Scotland needs to fail…
…more often, fail fast and fail cheap! This is indeed a controversial topic which divides opinion but I fear we’re a nation paralysed by that fear of failure ingrained in us from our upbringing (yeah blame
the parents!) – “Don’t fail those exams, don’t fail that driving test, don’t fail that degree.” Is it any wonder why we’re scared to try anything new? It’s partly thanks to this that some people will tend to take the path of least risk and resistance as they age (OK there’s more to it than that!) but they’re often ruling themselves out of anything new. Imagine what you could do if you weren’t scared to fail? No threat of public ridicule just reflection, support and guidance. Really, take a moment and think about that, it’s a powerful concept!
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Target Dashboard graphs its way into your daily management life
Everyone loves a good graph, well except the 3D pie chart but most managers I’ve ever met look for a trend “up and to the right”. Target Dashboard from Glasgow, Scotland is looking to make those
gaffer dazzling visuals of your hard work a piece of pie. Being a Software as a Service, cloud based application with integrations into your SQL databases, Excel spreadsheet import & Google data retrieval, report creation on your business data can take place at night while you sleep safe in the knowledge your stats are always on time Monday morning, even if you’re not…
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Scotland Needs YOU!
Scotland, the land of haggis, neeps and Lattes! Our country, of which we are fiercely proud. A country which feels like too often it receives the almost ran. Silicon Glen boomed its way through our hearts and minds in the late 90′s with visions of a real Silicon Valley technology powerhouse home grown in the North. We had the big guns from the USA (Motorola, Chunghwa, National Semiconductor) who brought great investment, recognised and nurtured the talent but since the 2000 collapse, technology has never really recovered. Sure Biotech is big, but is that the only thing we’ve got going on? There is WAY more stuff going on, but we don’t know about it. Why? We don’t talk and there is no stage!
We know more about what’s going on in Silicon Valley – California thanks to PandoDaily, Techcrunch etc than we do about our own doorstep. That’s a ridiculous state of affairs and something which scotsi.com (Scots-Ahy) is looking to change. We want to become the No1. independent news source for Scottish Technology, start ups and business. We need to offer Scotland a global stage to parade its wares, excite the world and build our brand as a country!
How can I help?
Simple, we need a little bit of your time! We can’t do this on our own, and we need Scotland to get involved in building our global online tech presence. We can provide the platform but in this game, content is king and we need your ideas, hints, tips and stories to create the daily content. This drives interest in the site, the companies we report on and the country as a whole! Gradually we’ll start seeing more investment into our country offering more jobs and better longer term prospects. We want to show you off to the world and demonstrate that we can compete on a global scale against the big and small of Silicon Valley and the rest of the world! So if you’re a one man start-up from Dunfermline or a multi-national from Glasgow, we want to hear your news. The only rules are there must be a strong Scottish link and a slant towards technology, OK? Take a minute and send us something, we really want to hear it – tips@scotsi.com.
Wait I want to write!
Great, get in touch! The hints, tips and ideas are the funnel but the articles won’t write themselves and we need a talented, driven team of journalists who want to write about technology in Scotland. We know you’re out there! Think of this as a global stage to play for your country while building the network you’ve always dreamed of! OK so at the moment we can’t pay you but that will come, in time, as we drive the world to look again at Scotland and you’ll be in a prime place to capitalise! We want a style so if you’ve read Techcrunch/PandoDaily/The Register, you’ll know what we’re looking for and you’ll know how it can work. If you haven’t, get reading! Bland doesn’t cut it, we want opinions and wit but there has to be a balance. This isn’t easy, but if you think you cut it get involved. To apply write us an article about technology in Scotland (anything you like but please try to make it a real event), a biography and a short piece on why you think Scotland can compete on a global stage and send it through along with links to any of your existing work to - apply@scotsi.com. This might be used on the site, and will give us an idea of your style so give it your best!
I need to tell people!
Do it now! Tweet, Retweet, Facebook share, E-Mail and Pigeon carrier this (links top and bottom) to people who will care and do something about it. Let’s get the world talking about Scotland again, let’s nurture those startups and drive the technology investment we so desperately want. Lets move from being an almost ran to one of the innovative, driven, go-to countries which world leaders look towards for new ideas to lead the way. We’re never going to be California – the weather will never compare, but lets embrace an essence of their business spirit and make a difference to our country!