Archimedes’ Hot Tub

I wrote about Skins Footwear a couple of years ago, lauding its effort to teach an old market, shoewear, some new steps.

Skins aimed to make all shoes fit the same, by separating the outer shoe, the skin, from the inner, the bone. You would transfer the bone from skin to skin, keeping your fit consistent.

The idea made intrinsic sense to me; I immediately thought of shoes I liked the look of but couldn’t stand to wear. The idea didn’t catch on — Skins went bankrupt earlier this month. I’m not sure what happened. I know I never saw it in stores; its potential retailer in Massachusetts opted not to carry it. I suspect it suffered from fit issues for those who tried it — it was like a semi-custom shoe, and I wondered whether that would work.

The death of Skins shows just another facet of how business can look like evolution. New ideas — mutations — may not prove adaptive.

At least it seems to have failed in straightforward fashion. At another company I wrote about, Entellium, management cooked the books. If the shoe doesn’t fit…

Wow, am I behind on my posts. Blogging for money has sapped my energy for this blog.

Here’s my latest Prototype column in the New York Times, Turning Point for Touch Screens. It’s on touch screen technology and whether it’s finally going mainstream, thanks to the iPhone.

And, while I’m at it, here’s the one before that, Finding and Fixing a Home’s Power Hogs. That one was probably the most popular column I’ve written for the NYT — it made the top 10 most emailed list.

During vacation last week I mostly disconnected, but I came online long enough to do a stint on the New York Times Tech Talk podcast. I talked a bit about my most recent Prototype column, Predicting Where You’ll Go and What You’ll Like. That column examined what might come of the growing mounds of data on our whereabouts, thanks to GPS systems, cell phones and the like.

My appearance on Tech Talk is about a third of the way into the show.

My latest Prototype column looks at what cloud computing means for innovators. Cloud Computing — So You Don’t Have to Stand Still.

My latest Prototype column in the New York Times is Home Brew for the Car,  Not the Beer Cup.

It looks at a company that aims to sell home ethanol brewing systems.

My new Prototype column in the New York Times looks at an innovation that came by analogy:
How Did Your Computer Crash? Check the Instant Replay

My latest New York Times column, Trying to put New Zip Into Moore’s Law,  suggests that it can, and looks at the commercial potential for self-assembling nanotechnology.

My latest Prototype column looks at speech recognition and its impending arrival in mass markets from cell phones to cars. See The Coming Wave of Gadgets That Listen and Obey.

My latest Prototype column in the New York Times, Capital Ideas and Social Goals, looks at what might be a heartwarming development: more efficient ways to fund social entrepreneurs.

My latest Prototype column in the New York Times looks at the slow process of innovation towards a mobile Web. See Mobile Web: So Close Yet So Far.