Hi all,

We were so proud of the Hasmonean event, and even more so when we heard our dear friend Rabbi Meyer’s words.

The event was held at the Marriot, Grosvenor Square and was a real theatrical show. The appeal presentation flowed effortlessly into live performances from the students and then back into the film and all eyes were glued to the set at all times. Students entertained us with their musical skills and wowed us with their dedication to the school. We heard from the wonderfully talented Hasmonean Year 6 Boys Choir (during this performance, I must say, most jaws were almost on the floor!!!) We were so priviedged to be a part of this event and we thank everyone at Hasmonean for their hard work and support throughout! I can honestly say I have never been witness to such positive attitudes towards a school from a group of students! You should be proud of yourself Hasmonean, you have grown and developed a widely respected institution - thank you for letting Inspire be privvy to that!

What a busy week!!!!!!!

How many people come to work on a Monday morning and get excited at an idea? Before now, I never had but when one particular boss turns round and says ‘I have it!’, you know he is talking about a concept for one of two things either a. dinner project or b. a film. You can pretty much bet that the ideas came to him at some absurd time during the night when everyone else’s minds are in that zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz state! In this case it was both and the results were to be displayed last week.

It really has been a whirlwind of fine tuning and inspiration for Inspire this week- we were proud to be part of three very special events; Langdon’s annual dinner, Camp Simcha Live and a memorial dinner to remember the life of a fine young man named Marc Tager who tragically lost his life in the Lockerbie disaster of ‘88.  The ‘Simon Maurer brainstorms’ relating to this weeks events were to manifest themselves as some of the most inspirational and creative events I have ever been part of.

Lets talk Langdon first- the Park Lane Hotel, Monday 2 February. A tragic reality for some had to be translated to an audience of potential donors. The emotional drain of a life with learning difficulties outweighed by the excitement of achievements that others take for granted, was apparent. We met some extraordinary people who suffer from prejudice and ignorance on a daily basis. We were excited to be part of what became an organizational and creative success. The film came to life through the voices of our incredible speakers and the crowd listened in awe at their struggles and feats. Production wise the room looked amazing with a cleverly lit set, simple yet sophisticated, while the room was awash with chatter. My favourite part? Inputting the  silent auction bids on a very fancy and teccie system!

I have to pay tribute to the Marc Tager memorial dinner. Although I was not actually involved in this event, I feel as though I must mention that, through the images that we saw in the office and the final film that was played on the night, the Inspire team truly felt the essence of Marc Tager’s short life and were priviledged to bear witness to the coming to life of his memory through photographs and videos.

Now we come to Wenesday -  the postponed Camp Simcha dinner in the Bobby Moore room at Wembley Stadium. From the moment the reception began, it was clear that all 500+ guests were excited to be at such an event. The community spirit felt in the room was apparent and the work that Camp SImcha undertakes echoed from moving photos and constant chatter.

The pièce de résistance was indeed the overall theme; a live radio show with LBC’s Nick Ferari (a Simon Maurer classic!). A rugged steel framed set set the scene for what would be a night of emotional yo-yoing with the instant natter about the excitement of being part of a live radio show!! (yes, there were guests who truly believed the concept was reality).

To see one of the most talked about events in our office come to life with the LBC jingle echoing throughout the Bobby Moore room introducing a ‘live’ (ok ok – pre-recorded!!!!!) radio show was amazing. To see the audience be taken live through our screens to the LBC studios was immense and to see the brainchild of your boss’ idea form what will no doubt be one of the most talked about events in the Jewish community is truly inspiring.At this point I have blow Mr Maurer’s trumpet because not often does feedback come much better than this;

“Rarely - if ever - have I attended an event of any kind that has been so well received.

I thought your idea was pretty smart until its screening - I now realise it was a virtual masterclass.

You should be proud - not least as I understand it helped raise a very considerable sum for Meir and the team.

Well done or - mazeltov (if that’s how I spell it)!

best,

Nick” (as in Ferrari!!!!!!!!!)

Working on the events of this week brought together the essence of Inspire; teamwork, creativity and passion.

On a personal note, I have to say that Inspire has brought a real sense of job satisfaction for me. Working with such talented people is hard to come by (and to get on with them is even harder!!!!) and so I say thank you to Inspire for allowing me to be part of that team.

Bring on the rest of 2009!

We are delighted to have designed the marketing materials and website for this years Medical Futures Innovation Awards Dinner. All details to this amazing event and life changing cause can be found at www.medicalfutures08.com

Healthcare is the world’s biggest industry worth in excess of £2 trillion. From Penicillin to beta blockers, and hip replacements to coronary stents, bright ideas from medics have historically led to vast improvements in patient care and brought significant commercial rewards.

By entering the Medical Futures Awards process, front line clinicians and academics have the chance to pitch their ideas and businesses to a world-class panel of experts whose advice, guidance and peer-review brings unparalleled validation.

As well as the critical recognition and endorsement of a Medical Futures Innovation Award, winners receive a bespoke package of support to turn ideas into viable propositions that have credibility with investors. This may include assistance in articulating their idea; securing funding; and introductions to professional and commercial contacts vital in taking their idea to the next level.

A unique feature of the Medical Futures process is the input from our esteemed judging panels, composed of hundreds of leading clinical and commercial experts, including the likes of heart pioneer, Sir Magdi Yacoub; leading scientist, Baroness Susan Greenfield; and business leader, Sir Richard Sykes. Each of the Judges are keen to offer help and guidance to the up and coming innovators of tomorrow.

“Winning a Medical Futures Innovation Award significantly enhances one’s chance of clinical and commercial success…”

To date, past winners have secured over £80m of funding, and most importantly many have gone onto become successful services or products that are now changing peoples’ lives.

Monday, September 1, 2008
Google Chrome, Google’s Browser Project

Google Chrome is Google’s open source browser project. As rumored before under the name of “Google Browser”, this will be based on the existing rendering engine Webkit. Furthermore, it will include Google’s Gears project.
The browser will include a JavaScript Virtual Machine called V8, built from scratch by a team in Denmark, and open-sourced as well so other browsers could include it. One aim of V8 was to speed up JavaScript performance in the browser, as it’s such an important component on the web today. Google also say they’re using a “multi-process design” which they say means “a bit more memory up front” but over time also “less memory bloat.” When web pages or plug-ins do use a lot of memory, you can spot them in Chrome’s task manager, “placing blame where blame belongs.”
Google Chrome will use special tabs. Instead of traditional tabs like those seen in Firefox, Chrome puts the tab buttons on the upper side of the window, not below the address bar.

The browser has an address bar with auto-completion features. Called ’omnibox’, Google says it offers search suggestions, top pages you’ve visited, pages you didn’t visit but which are popular amd more. The omnibox (“omni” is a prefix meaning “all”, as in “omniscient” – “all-knowing”) also lets you enter e.g. “digital camera” if the title of the page you visited was “Canon Digital Camera”. Additionally, the omnibox lets you search a website of which it captured the search box; you need to type the site’s name into the address bar, like “amazon”, and then hit the tab key and enter your search keywords.
As a default homepage Chrome presents you with a kind of “speed dial” feature, similar to the one of Opera. On that page you will see your most visited webpages as 9 screenshot thumbnails. To the side, you will also see a couple of your recent searches and your recently bookmarked pages, as well as recently closed tabs.

Chrome has a privacy mode; Google says you can create an “incognito” window “and nothing that occurs in that window is ever logged on your computer.” The latest version of Internet Explorer calls this InPrivate. Google’s use-case for when you might want to use the “incognito” feature is e.g. to keep a surprise gift a secret. As far as Microsoft’s InPrivate mode is concerned, people also speculated it was a “porn mode.”
Web apps can be launched in their own browser window without address bar and toolbar. Mozilla has a project called Prism that aims to do similar (though doing so may train users into accepting non-URL windows as safe or into ignoring the URL, which could increase the effectiveness of phishing attacks).
To fight malware and phishing attempts, Chrome is constantly downloading lists of harmful sites. Google also promises that whatever runs in a tab is sandboxed so that it won’t affect your machine and can be safely closed. Plugins the user installed may escape this security model, Google admits.
This looks like a very interesting project, and I think it can’t hurt to have more competition in the browser area. Google is playing this as nicely as possible by open-sourcing things, with perhaps part of the reason to try to defend against monopoly accusations – after all, Google already owns a lot of what’s happening inside the browser, and some may feel owning a browser too could be a little too much power for a single company (Google could, for instance, release browser features that benefit their sites more than most other sites… as can Microsoft with Internet Explorer). For now, until Chrome is released in a testable version, how much of the speed, stability and user interface promises will be fullfilled – and how much of the interface you’ll be able to configure in case you don’t like it – remains to be seen.