Volume 9
Issue 10 – June 27th, 2009
Published
Monthly
Gold Fusion
is a fusion of diverse technology with a discussion on associated societal
issues. While it does have its serious
side, it is intended to be fun. Feel
free to forward to anyone you think might enjoy it and please send your
comments and suggestions to
Golden Oldies
(Follow-up on Previous Issues)
Gold Links (Connections)
– Facebook2Go
Golden Nuggets (Bits
of Wisdom) – Mashup Logic
The Golden Rule (Getting
Along) – Anticipation
Golden
Oldies (Follow-up on Previous Issues)
The May 25th,
MIT Technology Review article titled “Micro-Projectors Set to Be Big” reviews current
and soon to be released projector technology.
Replacing current LED versions requiring a darkened room and manual focusing
is the new solid state laser/MEMS technology such as Microvision’s
micro projector promising to deliver more vibrant and colourful images with
auto focus. There are other devices reviewed
with variations on projection such as the use of holographic principles. It will indeed be an exciting time as
technology allows our productivity tools to get so small that we will need
alternative options to view and to share.
In the June
17th, MIT Technology Review article titled “A Camera from a Sheet of
Fiber” there is a review of some new technology
whereby fabrics can be turned into electronics by bathing them in a solution of
nanotubes. The
flexibility of fabrics makes these ideal for wearing on the battlefield and the
integrated electronics can be used for sensing such things as blood from a
soldier or pathogens in the air. Now MIT
researchers have integrated light sensors into polymer fibres, creating a new
type of camera within this fabric. These
researchers have not yet figured out how to utilize these flexible, foldable
cameras, but as you may recall from my “Transparent Man” edition, I’ve already postulated a valid
use case as camouflage.
The June 23rd
MIT Technology Review article titled “Search Me” described Stephen Wolfram’s
recently released “Computational Knowledge Engine” Wolfram|Alpha. It is not a mere search engine; it is a lot
more. Actually it’s not described as a
search engine at all as the output is a calculated response with supporting
material. This powerful little tool is based
in part on Stephen Wolfram’s original foray into computers and algebra, called Mathematica. Stephen’s
personal story is truly fascinating, and his latest project is pretty
impressive. Enter in the contents of a
recipe and you get the full nutritional facts of whatever you are about to
produce. Enter in a complex mathematical
formula and besides the results you get graphs and quite a bit of detail to
support the equation. Enter in a string
of notes and a piece of music is produced that you can play through your
computer. The recently released product has
a host of other possibilities that the developers are seriously exploring so expect
it to be truly dynamic. Thanks to Geoff
for putting me on to this story.
Gold
Links (Connections) – Facebook2Go
Gold Links
are bits of technology being developed or in use today, but pulled together to
form a new idea or a linking of these ideas for a new use, with a look at the
impact they could have on our lives.
Thought 1
– Love it or hate it, Facebook is out there along with numerous other more or
less serious social networking sites, and all are aimed at connecting friends
and people of like interests, because, after all, we all want to be with like
minded people. It kind of reminds me of
the theme song to that long running sitcom “Cheers”.
Making
your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking
a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't
you like to get away?
Sometimes
you want to go, where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came.
You
wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the
same.
You
wanna be where everybody knows your name.
You
wanna go where people know, people are all the same.
You
wanna go where everybody knows your name.
Thought
2 – We are blessed with so many choices in our part of
the world. We can choose what to eat,
what to wear, where to live, our homes, furnishings, vehicle, etc. We customize everything to our own tastes. Not only do we customize our computer
desktop, but we can also customize our computers. Gone are the days of beige monitors and
desktop boxes. We also customize all
kinds of technology, our GPS’, our radios and MP3 devices as well as our
televisions and remote controls and the list goes on. The problem is when we don’t have our own
systems at hand and we have to rely on generic systems at a hotel or in another
home or in a foreign office. It takes a
while to orient ourselves to our new surroundings resulting in lost
productivity. So in today’s economic
climate when travel is restricted to critical business needs, maximizing a travelers effectiveness is even more important.
Thought 3
– I recently received my updated Nexus cross border transit card. It is and has been for years a smart card with
a readable RFID, but the latest cards come in a special metallic sleeve to
shield the card from prying computers in an attempt to prevent identify
theft. Not that there is a lot of
private information on these cards, but we certainly don’t want to divulge that
information to people interesting in taking advantage of us. The beauty of the card is that as I near the
immigration booth at a drive through border crossing between the US and Canada,
the scanners there can read the card, providing the immigration officer with
all the information needed to determine if it is safe to let me enter the
country without having to go through a typical immigration interview. It is very effective and reduces the time
with the officer from what is likely a minute per car to about 5 seconds.
Link:
– What if we actually wanted others to take advantage of our identity, or
perhaps better stated, what if we wanted to have
customized service that met our specific needs?
For example, what if when we traveled, we didn’t have to take a computer
with us, but could go up to any machine and have it become instantly configured
to your specific needs? What if you went
into a hotel room and the remote control reconfigured to call up the stations
you like to watch on the channels you prefer?
Type in channel 16 for CBS and you get CBS regardless of whether the
local station is 16 of not. Or what if
you could jump into a rental car and the GPS has all your favourites loaded,
the radio is tuned to your favourite stations or music type, the MP3 is loaded
with your iTunes, etc?
Smart cards
may be the way that this can be done. They
would allow most simple customizations, but it would probably take something a
little more sophisticated than a smart card with an RFID to transform a
computer, but not necessarily anything significant. For example the latest news from the OLPC (One
Laptop Per Child) program, also known as the “$100 Laptop” program is that the
previous president of the organization; Walter Bender, who had a falling out
with the team over allowing a dual boot system with Microsoft, has come up with
what is essentially a computer on a USB thumb drive for $5. What this amounts to is a complete operating
system and application set for the machine that would fit on and run from a $5
USB drive and could go be inserted into practically any obsolete computer with
a USB slot; turning that “boat anchor” into a fully functional machine. For more information, check out the June 24th,
MIT Technology Review story “$100 Laptop Becomes
a $5 PC”
Regardless
of whether we would have to carry a smart card or an integrated smart card in a
USB thumb drive, we could soon take our preferences on the road with us and
utilize whatever technology is at hand and have it morph to our very specific
needs. And like social networking sites
where you share your preferences; local RFID readers in hotels, stores, coffee
shops and even bars would allow operators to determine your likes and dislikes allowing
them to cater to your specific needs, without bothering you with things that
you have no interest in. I can hardly wait. It would be like having a super loyalty card
on steroids. Can you imagine the feeling
of going into a bar for the first time and instantly everybody knows your name?
Golden
Nuggets (Gems of Wisdom) – Mashup
Logic
Golden
Nuggets are little thoughts about how we might make our world a better place.
From his
book, “The Age of the Unthinkable” by Joshua Cooper Ramo,
Mr. Ramo describes something near and dear to my
heart; the fusion of unrelated ideas. In
the chapter of the same name, he describes a mashup as
the combination of two seemingly unrelated things. He uses the example of the Wii
game as being a mashup of an accelerometer and a
video game. He goes on to write, “Mashup logic
demands that we look at the world as multiple objects mixed in multiple
unpredictable ways to create totally new objects or situations. Earl Gray, an American environmental
scientist, call this “the new math,” an expression derived from experiments
he’s performed in which chemicals separately have no effect on the body but
mixed together create a toxic, cancerous result. Gray calls these cases “zero plus zero equals
something.”
New-math combinations are all around us now. They are being created deep inside systems of
finance or warfare to produce surprise and newness at an accelerating
pace. They torch many of our old ideas
about how to conduct diplomacy, manage the global economy, or imagine our
future. They are the reason financial
executives can insist their firms are safe, only to see them blow up weeks
later, as previously unlinked risks mash into each other. They explain how leaders in places such as
the
I highly
recommend reading the book. It takes the
concept of “thinking outside of the box: to a whole new level and makes it much
more than a marketing strategy. It may
in fact become our strategy for survival, as a people. It is not easy for us to do, but when we take
away pure empirical science; Einstein’s definition of insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again
and expecting different results” just doesn’t apply to human behaviour resulting
in a new definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting the same results. We learn and
grow and are less likely to be fooled or to have the same expectations. The world has changed and continues to change. Outcomes that were once predictable are fast
becoming unthinkable.
The Golden
Rule (Getting Along) – Anticipation
Meaningful
quotes for improving our daily lives.
What we
anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens. Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881) (Source www.quotationspage.com)
Conclusion
I welcome
all your comments on content, as well as suggestions, answers, etc.
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Cheers,
Shawn Gold