Terraforming Mars Marching On?

This story from Scienceagogo on high test earth micro-organisms that could potentially thrive on Mars is just a little jolting. What could the implications of seeding life on an other planet be? What if some freakish mutation proliferates and eats our kids a thousand years from now? Okay, so I am paranoid. It just seems like a big step to be spreading bacteria and small organisms about on various planets Johnny Appleseed style. Hey why not use it to store our trash and nuclear waste too? (a joke) But I guess if we were able to make Mars inhabitable it would be a worthwhile endevour. Speaking of which I must plug one of my fav sci-fi flicks: Red Planet with Val Kilmer. The freaking robot dog is the same creepy that the machines gave me in T3 (another under valued sci-fi movie) Okay another less techy and more situational sci-fi fav is Enemy Mine with Dennis Quaid and Ben Vareen.

(10 shot' claims that T3 is not her kind of movie, and I have to agree it is a "guy movie" but I don't think it is a total chick flop.)

Home Decor goes Wi-Fi

Although Jakob Dylan may want some royalties, Wallflower is a wireless picture frame that slideshows photos served from your computer.
While it seems to be developmental and the $500+ price tag is not exactly a bargain. I love the idea. They need to be REAL big and cheap and use OLED technology.
Via Blogdex

Blogroll Update

While Blogger has been updating and fixing it's API, it has reaped havoc on the Whuffie template. Disappearing post titles last week, and upload files in the wrong directories, and the loss of some of those on the blogroll and link section. If you were one of them lemme know. We will put you back. (To blogger's credit Blog Control was fast, prompt, & courteous.)

Be sure to check out some of the newly 'rolled:

• Jean Chu | Hiving
ABerkeleyy area blogger who has a nice clean site and is a keen photographer.
(Not to mention here 'bitchun blog name)

• Phillip M. Tarrone | flashenabled
A great techno gadget blog. Clean and informative.

•
Josh Wolfe | Forbes & Wolfe

"...An insider's blog on the science, markets, and undiscovered trends of nanotech.
A must-read companion to the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report." (I guess forbes doesn't post at least I have not seen anything from him yet.)

• neuroprosthesis blog

"Science news related to biomorphic robots, android and humanoid robot helpers, cyborgs, brain mapping, neural implants, bionic organs, prosthetic limbs, spinal cord regeneration with a goal to alleviate movement disorders and related disabilities. "
Great nicely done news blog with a great bunch of links. (The home site needs work though, white lettering on black background is so hard to read.)

• Roland Piquepaille | Technology Trends

"How new technologies are modifying our way of life." Nicely done, well written, often politically left blog.

• Erik & Mark Baard | The Baard
"Reporting on Science and Society"

Again, nicely done, well written, often politically left blog. (But what do you expect from Boston author's who have published with Village Voice and plastic.com?)

Favorite Blog quote

"I don't think people who own birds should be allowed to shop at donut stores"

Pirates of the Caribbean Review (No spoliers)

While I went to the movie with low expectations based on a few of the reviews I had heard, I was confident that Johnny Dep would at least be entertaining as he has in most of the movies I have seen him in. I was not disappointed. I had thought that maybe Dep would not be in the whole movie or something lame like that (Okay I am still smarting from Jody Foster in Return From Witch Mountain) But it was defiantly a Dep movie. All the hub-ub about his eye make up and dark portrayal of a pirate was trumped though. Maybe if he would have taken a hit of a bong or something. While there was that magical feel of classic Disney movies it was very light and brief in a bedknobs and broomsticksy way, and I did find myself thinking the movie to be a bit a long a few times. Dep did a great job as a Pirate Captain and injected needed levity in a movie about a ship piloted by hundreds of undead skeleton pirates. They would have done well to add a Bob Hope type of character for more levity. (But that is just me missing Bob Hope and his Pirate'capades) The special affects were outstanding, moonlight revealing skeletal bones as characters dashed about it's beams. The plot line was intelligent, there were some good laughs, and the adventure was emmersive. Worth seeing on the big screen. Don't take kids that are younger than 8. Would I buy the DVD? Sure.

Overall I give it a B+. Had they lowered the death count and made it more accessible for children and added a funny character or two, (say Will Farrel or Chris Rock) It could have been an A list made for the whole family Disney epic.

Disney In Trouble?

Okay Euro Disney, who has not been doing well even after a second park opened recently in Paris. The double tanking venture is now looking to "Big Mama in USA" to bail them out. Perhaps it is time for an ad-hoc comittee to come in and re-imagineer the place? | More from the Evening Standard

Wireless liquid level sensing

While I wouldn't exactly qualify this as "what the world needs next is.." material, it is an interesting use of RFID technology. (ultimately a deadbeat waiter will just ignore the sensor indicator to talk to the hostess anyway.) Iglassware from Mitsubishi Electronics
Via DueDiligence Via Ole Eichhorn

DNA in Your Fingerprints

Something PreCrime might use? A new patented way of extracting 10 "nanograms" of DNA from a print in 15 minutes positively identifying anyone. This article explains in more detail and goes on to mention privacy issues and genetic profiling. | Read UPI story here

Neurotypists - Secretaries of the future?

The keyboard is one more level of abstraction between us and our computers... why not just skip the keyboard and enter commands directly from your brain? Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are the subject of research at a number of different universities, including the University of Rochester, Colorado State University, Helsinki University of Technology and Brown University. Most human research has been done using skullcaps or electrodes on the scalp. However, Cyberkinetics, a Massachusetts-based company, plans to retrofit a few brains with internal electrodes if FDA approval goes through. They plan to start their neural-electrode implant research next year.

via Wired News

Hamburglar among tomorrows technology leaders?

Nick Douglas comments below and submitted this link about fast food giant McDonald's using handheld PDA's to take orders. (Thanks for the link.) While I commented on his blog "Broken Hammock" about the futuristic notion of flash baking the memory of a junkfood binge via wireless internet I less hypothetically see this as a possible test marketing for cell phone orders. I also think the article he posted is worthy of note for the description of how much software, databasing and investment Micky D's has. I never realized how high tech my burgers were (Yes '10 shot, cow meat). While it would seem if McDonalds is suffering financially, maybe they are over thinking and part of the pain is IT over-investment.
But then again maybe they are setting a new paradigm for food consumption? Without question if McDonalds is experimenting with Wi-Fi, it makes everyone else stand up and notice.

Back to Medieval Times

I have always heard that the pagans claim that science will always lead us back to what they already knew. Indeed here is a case where high tech meets the dark ages.

Introducing the amazing Catapult watch!

While my first thoughts were about kids in school, I can see many an Office Space watching cubicle dwelling corporate fellow busily firing away at unknown castles and henchman.

Bio lightning rods of Walt Disney

A Giraffe was killed by an electro-magnetic surge known as lighting at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Full ABC story

Make It Bletter?

Make It Bletter?
About 7 posts down I was whining about no official digital replacement for a post card.
While I have yet to see one there is now a blog/newsletter delivered ala html form subscription style called a "bletter". The real feature is for those who publish an html newsletter and a plain text one; bletter wraps that into one time saving javascript. It has an RSS feed, but it makes me wonder if this isn't the start of a new hybrid of spam. You think people complain about Google being cluttered with blog mem now...
demo here

via John Robb

Phone help should know thier technology

In follow up to 10 Shots' post about nanospeak being marketing muscle, Dockers is now stocking stain resistant nano pants.

Nouveau parlez De France
Newspeak from France
I admit on July 4th I forgave the country of France for the whole Iraq flap after thinking about and being reinspired by their binding gift of the Statue of Liberty. Call me a hapless romantic. But those of you who said the Americans were dolts for their Freedom Fries terminolgy should know the dung flows both ways. According to this CNN report in a bout of anti American sentiment the French want to do away with the term "e-mail" and replace it with "Courriel" a hybrid of "courrier electronique".
Next they will want to change "spam" to "Pate'".
Jour de noir!

Local Tech:
Click here for a fair review of Crucial Technology's "Gizmo" 128Meg USB Flash drive (a division of Micron Semiconductor Product here in Boise, Idaho.) These things are said to replace the floppy drive as soon as consumers figure out what a USB is. While I have seen them lining the shelves at Circuit City, I have to say they are not very stylish. They all look like one of those promos you mail order hundreds of with your company logo on them. If these things are supposed to house your important info shouldn't they light up and tell you how much space is left and be housed in a cool titanium and hardwood casemod? None the less while the reviewer is hard on them for being at the upper end of the $30 to $50 dollar range for these mini portable memory sticks, I have to say very good things about Crucial. Solid service and support. I once ordered some RAM for dirt cheap from them got it overnight, and they supported it as I installed it. See if you get that with the foreign competition. (Okay I am biased.)

Disposable DVD's?
Disney's home video division is planning on marketing DVD's that expire after 12 to 48 hours. They are claiming this will serve the consumer dismay with paying late fees. Michael D. Eisner says "I think it probably won't work," and although his peers say he is just being cynical. I have to agree. The nuttiest claim is that although one would think our landfills would fill up with "nonbiodegradable polymers" they are claiming that people would use less fuel returning to the video store. Whatever.| Read the full NYT story here

Tiny Laptop?

Tiny Laptop?

John Robb is back and you should check out his take on the new Sony PDA which ships at a high $700, yet appears to be a mini laptop. This thing has the industry abuzz claiming it is one of the most innovative design and engineering feats of it's time. ( Although Jeremy of Futurismic is not so stoked. I am still jonesin' for treo600 unless I have to pay nearly $700 for one.)

Giant First Class Ski Boot

Giant First Class Ski Boot

Nippon Airways (ANA) has re-invented first class seating. The sleeper is sweet, and the Smorgasbord of tech will entertain to be sure, but the design...I just can't help but to think "ski boot". | more

Via the recently blogrolled Berkeley centric Jean Chu of "hiving" ('tis nicely done, well written in a zen sort of way.)

Electric Snowflakes

As in the case of many a science site I visit great discoveries have little information about the potential uses of the stated discoveries. That said, this site has very detailed explanation of how electricity forms a variety of shapes with ice crystals and some great photos. | Cal Tech Snow Crystal Site

Disney Postcard-O-Rama!

Disney Postcard-O-Rama!
(It just occurred to me while email replaces "snail mail" there is no official digital equivalent of a post card. I guess they have them but nothing mainstream or as functional as email that I know of. This is what I get for posting at 3:00 am)

This large catalogue of Disney postcards will excite and nostalgify even the most avid Disney expat. Includes photo cards and illustrations from before 1960 to the present. Thumbnail galleries click to full size. (a little slow if you are not on a speedy connection.)

via J-Walk

Somebody's Watching Me....

Well, this will freak you right out. Read this most excellent article. Big Brother not just pretending to watch you, but really watching you. I'm talking about the Pentagon's new pet project called CTS (Combat Zones That See). The cameras have always been there, scattered about every major city in the country. But, now they've developed a way to pull together all of that information from all of those existing sources into one major storehouse of data. Of course they're pushing the notion of how valuable it will be for protecting our soldiers in Bagdad. Come on now! I think a more likely use will be Homeland Spying, I mean Homeland Security. This is pretty creepy indeed.

"(CTS) is pretty creepy. And the creepiest part about it is that it's not all that sophisticated," said Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the privacy-rights proponent Electronic Frontier Foundation.

TeraScale SneakerNet

Pinging someone's whuffie doesn't take much bandwidth, but what about flash-baking an entire life-experience over the network?

Moving a megabyte is so easy using the internet that my cell phone can do it with tolerable efficiency. However, today megabytes crop up in droves... is the internet always quicker? (and cheaper?) What might be expected in the forseeable future? ACM Queue has an interesting conversation about large scale data storage and transfer...

The phone bill, at the rate Microsoft pays, is about $1 per gigabyte sent and about $1 per gigabyte received—about $2,000 per terabyte. It's the same hassle for me whether I send it via the Internet or an overnight package with a computer.

Quite the interesting read, for anyone interested in data management and related things.

The Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion
(I get tons of referrers coming to this site from hauntedmansion.com)
Disney fans will be excited about the new movie based on the Disney theme park which was also used as a location in the book Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom. (Which inspired this blog for those of you who don't know.) Follow this link for a trailer. Eddie Murphy is in it and there is a definite "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" feel, which I happen to love. IMO It would not have been a good choice to make a dark horror movie like they did with the Batman movies. | Follow this link to view a video trailer.
Via BoingBoing.net

Speaking of Disney movies based on them park attractions, anyone seen "Pirates of Caribbean"? I enjoy that Jonny Dep. He is so brooding and bohemian. Edward Scissor hands is an all-time classic.

Death Casting

This story from CNN talks about Hindu's who cannot attend cremations, who now can watch them live over the web.
A smart death care industry fella' would be all over this, broadcasting a funeral is the next best thing to being there. Although I can sense a morbid Truman Show thang' with Grandpa's dying breath streamed live from the hospital. That would be going a little far.

Wanting ET to Phone Home

It never ceases to amaze me to learn what people are willing to spend their money on. In this case, $24.95 to send a message to 5 stars during the "Cosmic Call". The digitized broadcast that took place on Saturday was sent out from, you guessed it, "Mission Control" in Roswell, New Mexico (with the dish being place in the Ukraine). Apparently 90,000 people opted to shell out the 25 bucks to send their message - 90,000 very stupid people.

The war of information

This article from the Bostin Globe has a great point about keeping an eye on those who keep an eye on 'tings. However, I am one who hopes for a system where holding office is a temporary place of honor, integrity, and public works, not a place where you lose all privacy and live under a microscope. That said Technology has the opportunity to disrupt the balance of power held in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, especially when that government has control of information and the people do not. The proper response to camera's pointing at the private sector is to point them at the public sector as well. Hopefully those with a brain will see that the line between public and private would be forever ruined and scrap the whole notion altogether. However, until then we fight fire with fire.

UPDATE: I was recently informed that I was (among other names) "subversive". A visitor claimed this post was "rabble rousing", and frosted me with other common partisan blogs. In response let me simply state; This blog is not a forum for political discourse or opinion, while my opinions will surely color my writing, I take great pains to focus on sci-tech subject matter. Much of today's technology and science is by nature "subversive" but I have no political agenda with this site. I leave you with this:

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both. (Not my writing, but that of the 4th president of the united states James Madison.)

Happy Birthday America

Through the smoke and spin of world politics few have remembered the gift of freedom that has been represented in my home America. America is not merely geographic place, though there are many memorable visages of beauty, nor is it a book of rules, though our Constitution is precious article, and niether does it tout itself as the only way, for America is a group of people with one common idea, celebrated and despised on forign soils, that idea is the people, and the people are the idea. Let us not forget amongst our lowly banging on the drums of politics, amongst the divisive tools of partisanship, or among the toils of day to day commerce and endevour, of this great heritage purchased by those who choose to defend you, speak for you, and work for you.
This great heritage defined by freedom, and expressed in speech of all kinds, from art, to blogs, to email is enjoyed by individuals. Not according to race, sex, creed, or kind but to all who own precious citizenship. Let not national debate, decent, or apathy destroy our love, our self respect, or ideals. On this day July 4th 2003, we face a future of uncertainty, with dynamic changes in technology that increasingly both empower and alter the common man and those that govern him, let us face that future without cowerdice or fear, but with responsiblity to the generations which shall follow. Let us not move forward in division, but in the unity which has been present in all great known human acheivements.
Today I remember the great gift of our lady liberty from France whose friendship is now in question. (To whom I hold no mallice) At the entrance to freedom she still remains a symbol of hope. What a perfect symbol a gift from afar. From the indian immigrant who starts a shop to send her children to college, to the native wealthy executive who gives of his fortune to do the right thing, May God bless you America, each and every one of you. Happy Birthday.

From the owner of this blog. (If you want to know more read this pleasant reminder of who we are.)

Update

(Photo is student Zach Clark showing computer monitors displaying very small things from the donated BSU Atomic Force Microscope during open house.)
I went to the NanoTech seminar yesterday and will post short and long versions of my notes and a summary. I have to mention Amy Moll the Assistant Professor of the Dept. Of Engineering who I met at the "open house" that kicked off UGIM '03 Microelectronics Symposium on Sunday. She is a very creative thinker and gave us a great tour and showed us some of the research being done. BSU would be smart to take real good care of her and pay her well.

Also the "comments" have been down thanks to Blogger and their kookie ways, but thanks to the ever kind hearted and hard working Mike they are working again.

Congratulations Roger you birthed a baby boy!

See people! This is where all this bio mania will lead us; down a slippery creepy slope. According to the BBC, scientists are postulating that soon men could cary children in an embryonic womb. Who are these scientists? Why? While transplanting a womb for a mother has obvious benefits, what could possibly be gained for a male? Aside from exit hole issues, there is a whole host of other things men are not equipped with. Would this become another selfish trend like single celebrities who adopt Taiwanese children? | Full BBC story here

Code name: Falcon

Code name: Falcon
(Falcon:Force Application and Launch from the Continental US-Isn't that Falcus?)
This DARPA program is developing space weapons that can launch from inside "Consus" (Continental US to those who aren't up on military tech speak.) The best part of the article is where they suggest that a single titanium rod dropped from space could create tremendous shock waves and penatrate 70 feet into solid rock. This would be used for deep bunker busting. | Full story here
Via Drudge

The Next Bomb

The 90's gave us dot.com bombs. Up next, nano bombs?

Nanotechnology is here! Or is it?

Don't Tread On Me Ware

Don't Tread On Me Ware
(I admit I am on a local tech kick but there is no particular reason.) University of Idaho students have developed a new way to prevent or severely limit hackers. The new software componant called CipherSmith soon to be engineered internally on a computer chip makes the hacker defend themselves against the potentially lethel software. The chip is also said to make it very difficult to hack into a network, requiring expensive equipment, luck, and hours and hours of coding. CipherSmith is set to debut at Technology IV in Spokane, Washington on Tuesday, a showcase for new developments.

Download A Joint and a Waffle?

Is it posible that nano and bio tech will reveal the hidden secrets of the brain, opening the door for a change in the drug trade/controlled substance world? Imagine if legalization of Marijuana became irrelavant, as digital THC algorythms were available for download on the net and played back through a pair of headphones? LSD, Cocaine, Heroine and other drugs? While this would be a detriment to healthy society, drug trafficers might be the ones hurt the most. Legislation would have to be enacted to stop such "stoner" software. Mind altering "Hardware" would have to be carefully regulated. It could happen. See this digital drug known as the Voodoo Machine.
Via The Accordion Guy

Calling All Nerds

Calling All Nerds
Open house at 4:00pm on Sunday at Boise State University at the engineering and technology building at 1375 University Drive. Come and learn about the components that go into MP3 players and talking Elmo dolls. This open house is the start of an international gathering of semi-conductor and micro/nano electronic researchers. 300 or so participants from 38 universities Monday through Wednesday. The three day sympsonium costs $70-$325 And claims to present next generation tech like micro-spacecraft for deep space missions and chip sized "electronic noses".
For more info go to UGIM 03 (cross posted at idahoMP3.com)

Cannon Ball Run: Clone Style

(Update on Idaho Gem Clone post)
It seems that of the five known competing cloners, no one is disputing the sucess of the Moscow, Idaho group from University of Idaho who are now awaiting their 3rd cloned "horse".
However, while the Italians have been silent as of late, the Austin Texas group from A&M U is brushing aside the accomplishments of the Idaho underdog and purporting to be the first to breed a quarter horse. Read more here
Cloners are desperate to fund their expensive habit. A bit of a bio gold rush if you will. While there of plenty of fools in a hurry to part with their dollars, I think many are still smarting from the tech industries wacking. Keep an eye on the Idaho group. We Idahoans are oft under estimated, and are a studious and disciplined group. Not only was the TV invented in Idaho, but the recent nuclear and chemical detection devices being employed publically came from here in the spud state.

Slugbot

A brief reprieve on my ban on posts about robots. It is not so much the robot that I find appealing as the idea of a self powered machine using it's kill for fuel. Very Stephen Kingish.


| Full wired story here | Slugbot site

Nanotechnology Luncheon

A forum on developing a productive enviroment for nano-tech ventures will be held in Boise, Idaho on July 2th at the DoubleTree Riverside noon to 3:15. Speakers will include Micron Technologies Research VP Mark Durcan, Lyman Frost from INEEL, Amy Moll from Boise State University, and Scot Ritchie from Positron Systems Inc.
$50 inlcudes lunch. To register call (208) 472-5230 or go to Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce.

The Birth of A PDA

Congratulations it's a baby Zire. 10 shot gave birth to a baby 6 oz. Palm Zire. Claims she has been doing away with dead tree snippets all day.

I gave her my resources for "educating" that little whipper snapper:

For the spiritually minded: decent free bible software at olivetree.com

and

Qvadis E-books library

A library of books for your handheld. (As 10shot's sister points out can be helpful while waiting for the doctor.)

250 or so titles just in the Sci-Fi section. Including HG Wells books: The Time Machine, War of the Worlds, The Island of Doctor Moreau, and the Invisible Man
and others from authors like Edgar Rice Burroughs.

These are .prc files which I assume work with any reader on Palm OS.

While it is a huge library, that even includes a rating system and search, the titles don't include the author names up front and sometimes have little or no info. But beggars shant not be choosers. This library has very open-sourcy feel as there are original works mixed in with the classics. Many of the books were tediously copied by an assortment of whuffie deserving transcriptionists.

Also check out their large list of e-book source links that includes links to the commercial fictionwise.com and the Gutenberg Opensource project:

Qvadis Internet Library of Links

Add on: For those of you who have always wanted to learn Morse code get this free tutor ware.

Principle 21: "Perform hazardous operations at very high speed."

A Russian scientist Genrich Altshuller developed a group of "power laws" that when applied to industrial design created huge advancements. Of course he was promptly jailed. Apparently big companies today have picked up these ideas and are running with them.

Now if TRIZ could just fix the comments on this blog.
| Read article | Learn more about TRIZ
via Walker Web Watch

Latent Inner Rain Man

(Blogging and breakfast don't mix. My brain is not sure which releases more dopamine: food or information...I am so conflicted.)
"humming antidepression helmets and math-enhancing ''hair dryers'' on their heads.." a quote from Lawrence Osborne's NYT article. (This is 4 pager story, not that long but I am wondering if the internet is enabling a "Kevin Costner" syndrome of longer news stories than usual.)
The article speaks of research being done on magnetising the brain which somehow creates enhanced thought processes. (You really must try sleeping in on a Sunday morning and eating Chinese food for breakfast.) Researcher Allan Snyder thinks that it may be we all have an inner 'Rain Man' in us waiting to be electromagnetically released. Wow! That could be...mind blowing? Of course there are those of us who always operate in an enhanced mode..like me. Note the artwork I posted my cat drawing without EMT, instead I substituted hot mustard. (Let's see a CAT scan of the mindnumbing, nasal passage clearing; 'horseradish rush'.)
also note this quote from:
rof. Vilayanur Ramachandran, director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California at San Diego
"We're at the same stage in brain research that biology was in the 19th century. We know almost nothing about the mind." Proving my theory, mentioned in the post below about neuroeconomics, that the interior of the mind is much more uncharted than they would like us to believe. (Thanks 'Honey for the Mongolian Beef it was so much better than the McGriddle I was dreading.)

Big Brother Hangin' Out at Wal-Mart

Big Brother Hangin' Out at Wal-Mart
Apparently Wal-Mart and Gillette have teamed up to try out some products imbedded with RFID tracking. The RFID chip provides a hopped up bar code for products that contains a lot more information. They also have read/write capability so that information can be added to them.

The original article by Mary Starrett makes the case for all privacy loving shoppers to throw up their arms in protest and start emailing their Congressional Representatives.

I don't know. I pretty much think we're all being tracked and monitored anyway. Quite frankly it doesn't really bother me. So, they know I've purchase a razor - big deal. Someone could rummage through my garbage can and learn what I'm buying too.

When I shop on Amazon.com, they know what I've purchased before, what I've looked at, and offer up selections for future purchases. I like the tailored on-line shopping experience. What's the difference?

Maybe if I was engaged in some kind of freaky, clandestine shopping, I'd be a little more concerned. I just don't care. Am I just apathetic or completely naive?

White Man Speak with Forked Tongue

(Posting with trepidation.) While this entirely grosses me out it seems on topic, considering the extreme body mod' mentioned in Down'. (see reversable dog-leg knee joints) Also the idea that kids used to grow thier hair long as self expression and now have moved to permanant alterations like tattoos and peircing seems to be fair futuristic topic de jour.
I saw a story long ago about 'californicators implanting bolts in their skulls to attach plastic and metal mohawks but I couldn't find anything in the 'Googlinator. (I did find Metrophage By Richard Karney) I remember living in Seattle and having doctors, nurses, execs, and libriarians commenting on the novelty of the fact I had no peircings or body art. So I am guessing regional and culteral views on this will vary. Don't cut your tongue you might regret it..wait that is teenager for "DO cut your tongue..." Go ahead and do this it is your option, I hope it ages with you." Is that better? I am practicing for my kids who have not yet hit their teens. | Tongue splitting story here

Salam Pax UPDATE (for those of you who missed it.)

The Iraqi Blogger known as Salam Pax (Peace, Peace) who mesmerized the blogoshpere with his insight, humor, humanity, and good taste in American music, had been the subject of many a challenge to his legitmacy. Many questioned who this blogger was, and what his motives were. Some claimed he was with the CIA, others Hamas, and yet others Mossad. It turns out that Salam Pax was legitamately identified as non other than an Iraqi intrepeter for Peter Maass a writer for the New York Times.
| Full Story | Salam's brief confirmation

Neuroeconomics: Another researcher cash cow?

Neuroeconomics: Another researcher cash cow?
Picked up this NYT story from TBP at unbillable'. It is about scientists studying brain response while making economic transactions. While I think study of human behavior is a great way for society to work out problems, I am skeptical about authorative brain studies and their conclusions. For example; the whole left brain/right brain theory has been adopted through some research programs and a number of books as fact. But if you look into it's opponents, there is still too much we do not know about the brain. There are even those who claim it is pseudoscience or psychoheresy. Today's power construct uses science to control people. Labels are a great way to to categorize and thus control them. Unfortunately, people are too diverse, too subject to change, to neatly fit those labels. (Read this interview with MIT's Steven Pinker author of Blank Slate') This is why socially most people recognize psychology, yet personally most of us belive much of it to be bunk. Essentially what I am saying is that witch hunting, and the beliefs like the 'world is flat' and 'flies come from trash', that used to come from yesterday's social leaders and scientists, are still here today, just hidden behind more acceptable yet less obvious terms. Producing studies to explain the obvious makes dumb people think you are smart.

For example look at the NYT article which states:
"Expectations alter economic experience. It feels better to get nothing when you expect $10 compared to getting nothing when you expect $90, researchers say. "
It took how many tax dollars, how much time and resources to figure that one out? Duh. If your like me you see the steady stream of scientific research that confirms what most of us assume is common sense. While granted there is some value in confirming certain theories scientifically, it doesn't take a Harvard degree to figure some of this stuff out.

Vanguardism aside, the "creative side of my brain" takes the story to it's potential Orwellian result: A hive of cloned Allan Greenspans all neural-netted into the NY stock exchange and government financial institutions instinctively making real-time adjustments. Neuroeconimic testing for applicants at stock agencies and venture capitalist companies that weed out those with "bad judgement". Resulting in a homogenized, sterile and inhuman environment already dominated by shark-like inhumanity (sorry Tim). Ultimately creative thinkers will be viewed as "criminal", then jailed and "disposed of" to "protect society". Sounds way out? Well think about it. Society already has a natural aversion to change and authoritarian environments already reward obedience and conformity, so who are we to think that technology and knowledge will not be used to further this behavior? Our only hope is for Neo to help humanity to escape the Matrix!

Can you See What I'm Saying?

So I am scoping this blog about smartmobs, and scanning through articles on suberversive behavior like sharing one supermarket discount card to screw up their system. (No not that!) And I come across this little item that first leads me to think "Uhm...yeah....too much weed.", until I see that the idea about dolphins communicating with each using word pictures, being a legitamate notion parlayed into a technology that claims to have the lofty goal of creating "Adaptive Media" technology to produce high quality, "mass customized" (video) media without any effort by the user." Which means for you bleary eyed web surfers, that they will make it so easy for your average guy to edit and shoot video, that it will become a new form of mass communication. | Visit the Garage Cinema Reasearch Group to learn more.

Caffinated and Clean

Caffinated and Clean
(This one is for Marcy, a contributor here at whuffie.com who I now call "10 shot".)
Soap with caffeine. Yeah, because Americans don't get enough caffeine in their diets. Get some here at ThinkGeek.
Via newly bloggrolled inventor and extreme tech fiend at FlashEnabled.com

Hey wait, I just found this link from the NewScientist about impregnating sarranwrap with anti-bacterial natural substances, and it gave me an idea; utensils and containers with caffeine in them. You could get maximum caffeine in the morning with caffinated cups and spoons. How about a hat that pumps it into your brain directly?

"Do all things in moderation."

Segway revisited

Segway revisited
I think these things are a great innovation and can't wait to see them proliferate. Anything to correct the insane traffic problems our cities are plagued with. These things are hardcore sci-tech, yet they have been written off by many as the overpriced dangerous brainchild of a mad inventor in typical resist that which is new fashion. Likely this is due in part from the long sited inventor Dean Kamen who initially has pitched his new invention on government organizations rather than sports and technology enthusiasts. Blogrolled enthusiast Steve has been recently agitated by the new P-Series, which he claims should be released in July. This new model is smaller lighter and less expensive the I-series which was recently featured as an Amozon.com special. See photos and chat here at segwaychat.com
Also read this story about what really happened (be sure to fully accept or ignore the flagrant political opinion at the end.) in the overrated Segway mishap involving the president. | link to poor photos here at US news

"You want the moon? I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down."

This idea was thought of long ago by The Little Prince and Jimmy Stewart:
A big rope up to the moon. Seems simple enough. Of course they would take several miles of cable made from carbon nanotubes. This "Space Elevator" made of superstrong cables strung from a platform on earth to a satellite in space. The cables, made of carbon nanotubes, are being developed now and will be 30 times stronger than steel. Full story here at Space.com

Okay so the story talks about cables to a satellite. But why not to the moon? Why not a cable system to a bunch of planets. Oh I know they spin in eliptical orbits, but that is where a rotating tether would come in handy add a littlee computer aided gyroscopics, it's all good.

Bush and Transportation

Bush and Transportation
The Bush admin. moves into the new era via hydrogen in apparent opposition to those who villified them as pandering to big oil. Read this story that points out that these hydrogen fuel cells will be created by new nuclear plants possibly located here in Idaho. Although this may dismay enviromentalists the verdict isn't out yet. And as the article points out, "..all of the waste produced by all of the world's nuclear reactors could fit in a two-story building, on an area the size of a basketball court." Although the United States has 100+ operational reactors, we have not built a new one in over 20 years.
In addition, the president himself was seen riding a Segway earlier this week according to this story at ABCNEWS.com

The New Math Time

This great report from Disney's Discover by Allen Burdeck about molecular, and nano technology converging with yet another scientific breakthrough in the area or time; new laser technology has allowed the smallest measurement of time (5 femetoseconds) to get even smaller. A half a femtosecond known as an "attosecond"(10-18 second). According to the report what this means for us laypeople is the ability to enter matter without leaving a mark. It is superb for drilling tiny holes just bellow the surface of solid matter. These pulses are being used to etch optical waveguides inside panes of glass—a development that could revolutionize data storage and telecommunications and eye surgery. How about that heads-up display, femtosecond style? | Full Story from Discover.com here

To realize the value of ten years:
Ask a newly divorced couple.

To realize the value of four years:
Ask a college graduate.

To realize the value of one year:
Ask a student who has failed a final exam.

To realize the value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize the value of one month:
Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.

To realize the value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of one hour:
Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of one minute:
Ask a person who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize the value of one-second:
Ask a person who has survived an accident.

To realize the value of one millisecond:
Ask a Korean Olympic skater.

To realize the value of a Femtosecond:
Ask a laser surgeon.

To realize the value of a attosecond:
Ask an information storage engineer.

To realize the value of zeptosecond:
Ask a nuclear engineer.

CoffeeGeek (*This is a test)

Our first non-virtual meeting of the minds happened last week with the contributors to this blog who all happened to be in the same town. The coffee was good. No manager's freaked about us taking pictures, and other than coffee stories and our kids we discussed:

Creating an ad-hoc committee of developers to "whitepaper" a whuffie system.
• How that system would work?
- Peer to Peer file sharing networking. Short term and long term operations.
- Unitization: accrual,
• What would be the benefit of creating a system?
- Benefit to the developers (Other than allot of whuffie points.)
- Benefit to users.

What we determined:
A rough draft of a whitepaper and a rough GUI is the first step before diving in. Also, using wiki for development.
Anyone wanting to join in is welcome. Look for that white paper and GUI samples soon.

Follow the link to see a slideshow>>

Click here for slideshow

I Know You Did It...

Your brain told me so. A fascinating article about the concern over emerging technologies that map the brain and as a result can detect "guilty knowledge". Talk about opening up a gigantic can of ethical worms. A lot of the questions that leapt into my mind were penned in the article: "We could have pictures of everybody's head on file. Is that a good idea? Who would run it? How would you get access to such a thing? Somebody may say, 'I want to take a picture of my head to show you that I'm innocent, but it may cost something.' Will it be just a gimmick for the rich? Should we insist that everybody have fair access if it comes up for legal matters?"

A new branch of ethics, called neuroethics, is taking a front seat to see that society understands the implications of neuroscience and the new devices that it enables. In a related article, the authors of "Bioethics and the Brain" (from the June issue of IEEE Spectrum), voiced that the consequences of new technologies are hard to predict, however - "Even if we can never fully anticipate the impact of employing these technologies, it is important to try." I agree.

Gear Suit

Here is a nice peak into the future of the armed forces and their future gear melding into their unifrom as early as 2011. While I raise eyebrows at a helmet that covers the face for infantry, and mines that hop to new locations (aren't we trying to get rid of mines not make them smarter?), I am gung-ho for technology that could help to save lives, and improve the qaulity of living for our soldiers. Knowing that very often battlefield innovation finds it's way back to public life. | Full Story Here
Via Blogdex

Why make Whuffie?

The memorializing of The Flock of Seagulls and their song "I Ran" from a post on this blog I culled from the random links on Blogger.com reminds me of why I believe a real mechanism for Whuffie is necessary.
While royalties from music services like BMI and ASCAP are paid to some musicians, many never secured proper rights, and have whole underground followings but never know. A way to express ones appreciation in units without monitization could be truly useful.
I am getting the idea that such a system might be a labor of love and not a monetary venture.

Scenario:
Lisa Marie Presley gets auto whuffie for just being Elvis's daughter, additional sympathy whuffie for losing her dad to drugs at an early age, loses points for marrying Micheal Jackson, and divorcing Nicolas Cage. How does this help? Who decides, if anyone? Would Lisa's Whuffie get plinked automatically from Micheal's bad public whuffie?

If your like me you don't care about celebs'. Likely you don't share my enthusiasm for Flock of Seaguls. But what about the neighbor who comes and visits your old grandma and brings treats, kids and joy to her last years of life? She works as a waitress and you eventually move away. How do you quantify your appreciation? Traditionally it is through communication or deeds, but we, regardless of it being good or bad, in today's fast pace lifestyles demand new tools for human interaction. Whuffie could be such a tool.

While venture capitolists do not get wiggly about "labor of love" projects, home grown self motivated deals take time to come to realization. Someone would have to provide funding for such a venture at some point. Which is why many groups have went to the commercial models to provide income. They appear to be having some success in applying social software to business applications. (though true success will be measured in time.) I would like to believe that if you create something truly useful the cash will come. Then again maybe someone will just expand on your free labor and the cash will come to them.

Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

The world's first robotic vacuum cleaner has gone on sale in the UK. The price tag? About $1650 USD. The Trilobite apparently has no problem scooting under beds and tables, etc. and uses sound waves just like bats do to avoid running into stuff. Kind of reminds me of the Jetsons. "Machines do the working, machines do run, if they need anything they push a button and it's done." I want one!!!

Idaho Gem clone

Born May 4th of this year, the first mule was cloned in Moscow, Idaho. A project of the University of Idaho and the first born of three mules named "Idaho Gem". The idea has a slew of good ol boys with their panties in a bunch. While horse racers salivate at the idea of cloning the hoofprint that was a cash "cow", breeders claim this will make horse breeding and racing purely a rich man's game. Horse breeders also claim that cloning will produce poor breeds. The team of cloners well ahead of the pack, estimates 7 other teams internationally are working towards equine cloning. Budget cuts are forcing them to be creative in funding the continuing project. The U of I team claims they took 200 hundred fertilizations to produce 7 foals, in comparison to the nearly 300 that produced "Dolly" the sheep".| Local coverage | complete Dept. of Ag story in PDF

Geeks Rejoice!

Geeks Rejoice!
"The Matrix: Reloaded" does it right. Trinity's power grid hack shows her using the free Nmap utility to sucessfully gain root. Nmaps author, Fyodor, noticed the sequence and had this to say:
"All was going well, until Trinity needed to do some hacking," Fyodor wrote to CNET News.com in an e-mail interview. "This always ruins movies for me, as they almost always pass off ridiculous 3D animated eye-candy scenes as hacking. But then Trinity pulled out my Nmap program and did it right! I was so shocked that I almost did the 'r00t dance' right there in the theater!"

TV for pets

TV for pets
While the deadline comes down to a vote for more media conglomeration and it's advocates claim that the legislation on hand will take away from quality television, we have people making TV for pets. What does this say? I assume there is a market for this but it is wrong, wrong, wrong. Cats already have too many distractions. They are already too aloof and self centered. If cats could be goth they would be. TV for dogs is more reasonable, theirs is a species I can identify with, easily pleased, loyal to those who give snacks. A far greater disposition for television viewing.
I can hear it now "My house is ridden with mice..", "Shut off your cable so muffy will get of the couch."
This is just too futuristic for me. | read the full story here

Got Web?

Josh's post about cloning endangered species led me to consider bio "activism" and the new onslought of genomic political posturing and information we the public will consume. I also was reminded of a story that ran awhile back that had a lot of shock value but seemed to garner no reaction from a bored and conditioned(?) public:
"Spider Silk from Goats" in which spider-dragline filament, from which arachnids spin their webs and is one of the strongest materials in the world-many times stronger than steel who's primary use would be bulletproof vests is harvested from a herd of New Zealand miniature goats that have a silk-producing gene added to their genom.

Doesn't the fact that one gram-approximately a teaspoon of silk-can be stretched to almost three miles coming from a gnetically altered herd of goats concern anyone else but me? After watching my two year old literally scream during a family viewing of "Eight Legged Freaks" (my new cult favorite) I am convinced that bio nerds paling with millitary types could be a troubling playground friendship for us fragile flesh and bone type mammals. Oh, I know how they will assure you that this under the strictest of contolled enviroments, and that my fears are only a product of my ignorance of genetic science, but what if there is a mistake! It is not like the scientific, medical, and millitary communities have a spotless record free of mishaps and misgivings.

"Gee, kids what a nice day at the petting zoo..", "Why does that goat have Nexia Labs tatooed on it's butt?...", "Wait a minute why does that goat have fangs and just climbed up a wall and jumped 30 feet! Why is he wrapping that toddler in silk and hanging her on the barn rafters?!"

Welome to the genomic era. Okay while I am aware that science can mean good things for us bi-ambular hominids, what is troubling me is the mild burp and yawn that the general public has contibuted in response. But not me I am ranting on my blog to my 1000 a day plus visitors. (okay so you are burping and yawning too.)

Clones May Save Endangered Species

Clones May Save Endangered Species
Popular Science interviewed representatives from Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) and the Wildlife Conservation Society Institute regarding the practice of cloning to save endangered species. This April ACT cloned a Banting Cow -- it was the first successful clone of an endangered species. The proposed practice of routinely cloning endangered species has raised the question: Should we clone to save a species if it's fate is to live in a zoo as some sort of living museum piece? Bitchun Animal World, anyone?

A retro treat for Disney fans

Visit this link for a peek at a musical record map from Mattel and Disney. Be sure to view the full map illustration and download the audio clips.

Top roping is for Neanderthals

Top roping is for Neanderthals

In follow up to a prior post "Sticky Science" this group of developers has created a Gecko exo skeleton. Called the Geckomat. Check out their vision, concept, technique, photos and more at their website. I want a housefly exoskeleton, that would be cool. Taking off backwards, seeing multiple camera angles of everything, buzzing around town. Pooping on things.
UPDATE: Russian developers create "Gecko Tape"...

Avoiding a Space Pearl Harbor

Avoiding a Space Pearl Harbor
While I would have to reject the silly notion that this is "another American ploy to dominate the world", the US has taken liberties to control close to earth space to protect from enemy use to harm US interests according to this article. Sounds like 007 Bond 1979 movie Moonraker to me.

"Just like the Moonraker knows
His dream will come true someday
I know that you are
Only a kiss away.."

Via Cyberfictionreview

HP to create "This is your life" wearables

HP to create "This is your life" wearables
In followup of sorts from this post on an MIT's student who is testing a turtleshell like backpack that records video/audio of your whole life computer hardware conglomerate Hewlett-Packerd is taking a slightly different spin and developing a camera possibly mounted in glasses that photojournals your life. I believe this serves as a future trend toward invisable technology, ratifying the observation that when technology becomes transparent it is truly successful.
| Full story
Via Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends

Kick me my server is down

Kick me my server is down
The Baard gives us an exclusive story on miniature portable servers from Intel.
My question is why carry it around when you can have it implanted? Morons.
Via Smartmobs

bio cyborg mods

This guy claims "What we have always feared we have already become..zombies and cyborgs" an artist going by the name of STELARC has this interesting "whitpaper" on adding an extra biological ear to your head or arm but using it for digital speech and adding web capability and broadcast streaming audio. While there has always been a connection between madness and muse, I am led to question, what kind of negative impact will technology have on the mentally ill? Could it potentially enable them to turn themselves into cyborg like creatures, with a Slurpee dispenser in ther hip and a Space Invaders screen on thier chest? Would the only medical ethic standing between the head case and the bio vending machine be the almighty dollar? Could globalism bring prices down in that area too, making one stop bio surgery stations a common site in Santiago? "We replace kidneys and install bio hardrives"

Cognitive Carry-along

Concerned about keeping that whuffie level up? Be sure and check your MiniCog before going out...

The National Space Biomedical Research Institue (NSBRI) is working on "MiniCog," an application that evaluates your level of cognative wherewithall. Dr. Stephen Kosslyn of NSBRI sums it up:

“Difficult tasks, such as an astronaut performing a space walk or a surgeon doing a complicated operation, require the utmost attention and vigilance. We’re developing a way for people to test themselves and make sure they are mentally up to the challenge. Test results can help users determine if they need to eat, sleep, exercise, or better focus their thoughts on the task at hand.”

Read the NSBRI news release.

Onboard Computer

Onboard Computer
Well it seems like a given that auto makers would start putting usable computer systems in cars, and there are a number of them out there. However, why hasn't some enterprising company like COMP USA or Circuit City or audio chains started selling the service of installing computer systems in cars? It seems like it would be an instant cash cow. Check out this site dashpc.com and you have to scope the photos of this x-box/Unix mod.

Recreating the Magic Kindom?

Recreating the Magic Kindom?
While I am not a huge Disney fan, although much of the old school Walt magic brought good things to my life, many of the readers of the book Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom, are as well as it's author Cory Doctorow. If you are one of those fans you might want to take a peek at this story from MSNBC which speaks of the "struggling" empire, it's leaders, and it's products. They claim they are looking at creating a new image for Disney. Why not break it up into ad-hoc groups and departments that re envision everything finding special people like Walt did? Oh yeah, stock holders and board members want bottom lines, I forgot. But at least Cory's book could be art imatating real life and we could all hope for a renewal. We will see how Pirates of the Caribbean does and Haunted Mansion...with Eddie Murphy? Matrix will likely fare well with thei game based on a movie, why shouldn't Disney do well with movies based on rides?
I tossed around the idea of putting a donate link to send me to Disney World, as it was an unfulfilled childhood dream. But begging just doesn't seem right, and I am not sure if I even want to go anymore. I would rather see a child who has that passion for mystery, invention and adventure go. I think my time a has come and went.
UPDATE: "Finding Nemo" movie gets good reviews

What kind of camera can work 86 million miles away?

The kind our tax dollars pay for. While I would not characterize them as stunning or breathe taking, the idea is stirring, Mars Global Surveyor sends us photos of earth from mars, new perspective on our place in the cosmos. Read more and see for yourself at nationalgeographic.com here

Celebrating happy 4th

Celebrating happy 4th

This contributor to this blog is happy to announce the 4 years of wedded matrimony to the sweetest and smartest lady I know.
Although we fight like cats and dogs, her smile and looking into her eyes is the light of my life. Her loving approval is my greatest reward.

Blue collar redefined?

Blue collar redefined?
Very interesting note about a possible shift in labor classism by Glen Reynolds at MSN. The point being that with desktop work being shipped out of the country, manual labor could have a sudden increase in value. I think it will happen, and it is an overdue correction on a false notion that formal education being superior to learned skill is an absolute. I do draw a slightly different conclusion then the columnist though, knowing how to prosper in a corporate setting and manual labor skills will become the new virtue.
via futurismic

UPDATE: Check this more pessimistic post by Rick DeMent on jobs flowing out of the country. Personally, while I believe in a free and open market, trade with other countries, and that their is a new globalism, I think the willingness to go for the lowest dollar and send job out of the US- even when there is a shortage of skilled workers here, is irresponsible. One example: I have a friend and former client, who opted to send some design work out of the country to India, it was a much lower cost. With a little trouble and behind deadline it was completed in a good way. I am not offended, because business is business (and art is soooo subjective) but, he just weekend the local and national economy and strengthened India's. I think this should be allowed, but there should be some sort of return or interest to our country when we hire out, and that people should use more discretion in these matters. 30 years or a 100 years ago there would be no question about this, as even the very rich were aware of the poor in our country and would not turn a blind eye to them. Instead of a stockholders approving work transfer overseas, maybe they should consider taking a loss once in a while and putting money into training the poor. While I know some traders and investors would scoff at that remark, some things should be done because they are right, not just because they will make us money. This used to be common sense. Rick is right about "hidden costs" too. My wife just called and is trying to cancel a check that was lost or stolen, and the lady she was talking to was from Pakistan and likely at a call center in India, and could only repeat what her screen prompt said. She ended up going to the bank and talking to the branch manager. You get what you pay for, and we are getting a new bank.

(OT) Lawyers ain't all bad

You have to pop over and read this post about the day in the life of a lawyer- okay it was not a normal day but it is a blog must read. Made my day brighter. TPB at Unbillablehours your my hero. (Off topic other than this is the type of first hand literature released in near real time that blogging technology is all about and that the NYT will never be able to replicate.)

Go out in style Go out in a 'pod

Go out in style Go out in a 'pod
When you die you can't take your Ipod with you however, you can take your EcoPod to the grave...literally.
A holistic mystical flavored coffin made of 100% recycled paper and bedecked with various nature/pagan decor from the other side of the pond. If you are over 6' your out of luck though. I think they should just have everyone play a game that sucks you into an incinerator like Logan's Run. Or maybe recycle the biomatter to feed the poor like in Soylent Green. (Okay I am not really that insensitive, I worked for a cemetery for 6 years, but any excuse to mention two of my favorite sci-fi flicks.) While I like the idea of alternative deathcare products as the industry is seriously backward ingrown and run by mom and pops and mega corps, the EcoPod just doesn't seem sturdy enough to deliver me into the arms of Saint Peter, I want wood or maybe if the EcoPod floats, put me to sea in a rain of flaming arrows.

Find Stuff Fast!

I just added a search to the site so that you can find stuff without sifting through all the archives...okay I added it so I can find stuff without sifting through all the archives. But you can use it as well. If you are not familiar with Atomz, check it out it rocks. They program custom search engines for websites and they have a free one with no advertising as well.

Follow up to Tron

In the "making of" portion of the Tron DVD,
one of the things that drove the original concepts behind the movie were many poeple who were not "about the money or the fame", or even success, they just knew making the movie would be cool, fortunately Disney bankrolled it, and it had modest returns in the box office. Would it not be great to show those folks my appreciation for a job well done through punching in a vote that translated to thier Whuffie readers? A virtual pat on the back.

One of the other things that Lisberger mentioned on the disc, was that his concept was to get artists involved with this project because the fact was that computer programmers and cgi guys were not that creative. He firmly believed in teaming the techno geeks with the creatives and it paid off in a large way. It pushed the animateers into learning cgi applications for thier work, and computer graphics were pushed beyond thier normal boundries resulting in what producer Mike Kushkin said was " technology 2 or 3 years ahead of it's time".

That is the point of this blog. As a creatives, we do not have the industry savvy of Tim Oren, the writing prowess of Cory Doctorow, the financial intrests of OpenCola, Social Text or other social rep IPOs, the the knowledge of power laws like Ross Mayfield or Adina Levin, but we do have creative vision, my hope is to dialogue on a the simple implementation of a Whuffie system at best, and at worst help the average'Joe to decode what all this hooey is about. What is in it for us? Whuffie? I just think it should be done. But maybe if the right people like the way we think they will hire us to as creative consultants and producers.

After some thought I have decided that the focus of that system though very multi-faceted should be social recognition of achievment as "Our current social system does not formerly recognize this, and often attention-wealth comes too late, as in the case of artists, engineers, or humanitarians who recieve recognition after their demise."

Therefore, political whuffie is not that important, because who cares about their current political affilliation if they have achieved something that is great for humanity. My hope would be that most would opt out of stating thier political affiliations, unless it was important to them. Reagan was once a Communist, Al Gore was a Republican, but the internet was invented and the Berlin wall fell. This reward type system would both point out human achievement and encourage good works regardless of party or ideology.

This seems to be the focus of the decidedly commercial affero.org so I am going to do some study on what they are doing.

Tron reloaded

Tron reloaded
If your like me, the more hype around a movie the less it interests me, maybe it is street smarts, maybe something deeper and self aggrandizing, but Matrix Reloaded is mildly of interest to me. Not because of it's great effects or cool sci-fi story line, but because I like movies, and I think it might entertain me. However, in lew of standing in long lines, I went to the video store and rented the classic Tron with then young Jeff Bridges. (speaking of the computer revolution) This was the a classic Disney investment, that showcased early Walt-style innovation in place of big budgets. Director and writer Steven Lisberg was running a small moneyless adhoc animation studio that was tanking after their first big job flopped when the Olympics were canceled. He came up with a benchmark process that inspired Toystory and today's CGI movie craze. While the video game was better than the movie, the movie was light years ahead of it's time visually and was the first showcase of computer generated art. There is a rumor that they will do a 2nd Tron movie (How about a trilogy?). Rent the DVD, take the time to watch the special features. Learn more here at tron-sector.com

Historical framing and whuffie politics

"2 U (under the sea)
Mark how the telegraph motions to me,
2 U (under the sea)
Signals are coming along
With a wag, wag, wag;
The telegraph needle is vibrating free
And every vibration is telling to me
How they drag,drag,drag
the telegraph cable along."
James Clerk Maxwell The father of modern physics (written when the transatlantic cable was laid.)

I was talking with my wife about technology and convergence, and the conversation began with the political change in the 1700's with The American Romantic Movement, the industrialization of the 1800's, and the scientific convergence in mid 1900's of the atomic era trains,plains, and autos, and how relative that is to the latest convergence of computing and communications. I have been pondering my suspicion that these are becoming accelerated from 100, 50, 25, year intervals to what appears to be 15,10 and 5 year intervals. In this process industry and investors are quick to translate new technology into the last great benchmark. Going back to the Revolution 1 E-litterati like Ross Mayfield have picked up on the social and political ramifications of convergence, (though decidedly left). So I wonder about the new genomic era which appears to be realized in the next 5-10 years, and what that will entail. This leads me to comment on the networking process that would be potentially realized with a Whuffie system. Imagine being able to quickly locate, and contact multiple human resources on a global level without all the time and expense, and constraint of today's networking systems. To date I have discussed the trust measurement, currency or unit value, and network value factors of a literal Whuffie system. In the vein of left handed and right handed Whuffie, what would the political ramifications be? While finding someone's political affiliations is often dubious, or done after the fact, as in the case of a dating relationship, business partnering, or hobbyist/enthusiast- How would it affect relationships if you knew of someone's political affiliation ahead of time, would that not attend to polarize and isolate groups. Or worse would this have the affect of compromising our democracy , with potentially entire state and federal agencies, corporations, and groups sifting whuffie databases and cherry picking. But then again would that not just be an acceleration of a process already in place with unions, voter registrations, districting? Would legislation be imposed to keep this from happening? What type of positive effects on politics could Whuffie have?

Loud clothing just got louder

Very cool luminous clothing story at PCworld
scope the manufacturers:
Electric Plaid
Luminex
Elektex

Also scope her write up on artificial memory covering 1945 Memex and memory storage today. Tastey.

Via guest blogger and robot queen Karen Marcello on BoingBoing.net

Sticky Science

Geckos long thought to have thier cieling sticking abilities contirbutable to some sort of glue, have now been found to be using unique properties of "Van der Waals Forces".
These forces have been replicated in man made synthetics that are said to hold up to several kilos on the cieling. Rock climbers stick close to this one. Full story

Baby Eliot

A peek at father and blog contibutor's new 7 week old baby Eliot, who stopped by from the Pacific Northwest last night.
We had French press Hawiian Peaberry (8.99 Worldmarket for 1.5 lbs.) and the conversation covered non protestors carrying signs that said "rabble rabble" and chanting the same (Ha!), site seeing in the Seattle area from camping to seaward exploration via fairy to the San Juans, and my notion that with the advent of trilogys like the Lord of the Rings and the new Matrix movies, soon with added technological advances there will be one ongoing user particapation reality type movie that everyone will be in and that everyone will see.

Flash-Baking Anyone?

Flash-Baking Anyone?
A new virtual reality array allows an immersive experience without the disorienting 3-D goggles. Key to the installation, dubbed LiveActor, is the pairing of an optical motion capture system to monitor the body's movements with a stereo projection system to immerse users in a virtual environment. The combination lets users interact with characters embedded within virtual worlds.

According to Norman I. Badler, professor of computer and information science and director of Penn's Center for Human Modeling and Simulation, "The system is much more than the sum of its parts. Motion capture has traditionally been used for animation, game development and human performance analysis, but with LiveActor users can delve deeper into virtual worlds. The system affords a richer set of interactions with both characters and objects in the virtual environment." LiveActor will be demonstrated for journalists and others on Thursday, May 15th.

Electric Wine

Electric Wine
Scientists have extracted electrical power from a grape. The process harnesses the metabolic energy of glucose and oxygen to create a biofuel cell. This is some cheap vino too - only costs a few cents to make. According to Adam Heller and colleagues at U of Texas at Austin, the biofuel cell should also get power from body fluids. It could potentially drive a tiny, autonomous sensor implanted near a wound after surgery to sense fluctuation in body temperature that might signal inflamation and infection. Read more... On a personal note, as the mommy of a three year old who never tells me when she's hurting, I'd like to have a couple of those sensors implanted in two little ears to let me know when there is an ear infection raging - rather than rushing to the Dr.'s office with a perforated ear drum as we did this afternoon!

Adding to the Blogroll

Adding to the Blogroll
A classic genomic era thought provoking quote lifted from Geoff Cohen at coherenceengine.com
"we must recognize the potential that every protein in our bodies may in some way represent a computer a trillion times faster than one of the most powerful human-built computers in the world."

"attention-wealth"

Check out this thread by Gothwalk the pagan Irishmen here on live journal that I butted in on via trackback.
It is a good focus on something I had forgotten: The social currency of what he termed as "attention-wealth", or what we cowboys call in these parts of meatspace "Whuffie". The talking points being:
• The value of good social standing and support as opposed to the traditional currency of money
• A timely system for crediting that value to people.
So the question I have: is there warranted social change enough to support a new focus on social capital that would result in a system as suggested by Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom? Or is this a silly nerd notion that should be placed aside Star Trek enthusiasts fantasizing about transporters and holodecks (as Tim Oren suspects)? Another possible angle is that there is no such monumental change or shift in society, and that the profound change is in the ability through technology to quantify "attention-wealth". In which case I say let the revolution begin.

New World Clothing

FloatCoat
Oooh, gotta scope this artist Alex Soza and his hi-tach clothing, on the site you will find:
• Cool exco skeleton just as I requested (boredom with bots)
• A floating jacket.( imagine you come in from the cold at a party take off your jacket and it hovers over to a coatroom and deflates, when your ready to go you beep it with your watch,pda, cell phone it inflates and locates you.)
• Sleaves that roll up or down, collars that get bigger, features on a jacket wired by a thermal sensor that also tells your coat to get thicker or thinner depending on the outside and internal temp.
This site via the just blogrolled Z+Blog which was via this cool ap blogmatcher from google wannabe Ryo Chijiiwa. via Blogdex

Wired Espresso

Wired Espresso
I had heard about the notion of toasters and refrigerators connecting to the net, although an obvious evolution, I thought it was down the pike, shame on me for under processing info with my wetware, as I came across this new product in the category of "Super Autos"- not cars, espresso machines. This one in the range of $1,700, comes with a port for jacking in to the internet: "...hook up your notebook computer to this thing to program the machine, run diagnostics, and even to let Capresso Techs run diagnostics over the Internet to troubleshoot any potential problems...". This cool product via boingboing via coffeegeek, made me so excited I brewed some stout African crude and blogged this post.

Back to the Past With DiCaprio as Micheal J. Fox, and Hanks as the Proffessor?

All futurist have a fascination with the past, as we hurtle towards the technology rich gene-set we look back at yesteryears jet-set.
My wife and I give huge praise to the Steven Spielberg movie "Catch Me if You Can" with Leo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. Not only is it a well done drama on the real life/semi fictitious story of check fraud guru gone FBI expert Frank Abagnale Jr., it is one of the best period pieces I have seen in a long time. The plot effectively takes you through the end of the 1950's up to the 1970's in way that is entirely transparent, the subtly of which is likely lost on many but not this viewer, it connected me on some subconscious way with my national heritage and past, being that I was born in the 60's it had the effect of helping me to look backward and forward at the same time. I agree with this review that the perfect contrast to light hearted retro Catch Me if You Can is the dark futuristic Minority Report. If not for any other reason see this movie just for the retro value.
Other retro movie I want to see: "Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind" stay tuned.

Monkeys fall short of Shakespearian Prose

If you give an infinate number of monkeys an infinate amount of typewriters and enough time, then they will eventually reproduce the complete works of Shakespeare. Thomas Huxley, a 19th-century scientist, is usually credited with coming up with this illustration of chance and probability. (Note: in mathematics, most anything can be "possible" with the inclusion of a few infinities...)

Some researchers in Britan left six monkeys alone with a computer for a month. The net result? No Shakespeare.

"They pressed a lot of S's," reports one researcher. "Another thing they were interested in was in defecating and urinating all over the keyboard."

Perhaps with the aid of flash-baking and a cure for death these monkeys might get a little closer? Or perhaps the monkeys will just figure out how to hang the mouse and keyboard from the rafters for a makeshift jungle-gym...

Do you smell cheese, or have a "point"?

This new free demo software tracks movements to replace your mouse. While they need to hire a new marketing company with a name like "Nouse", I like the idea, anyone with a usb cam can try it. I hate the mouse and the touchpad, and sore wrists. Maybe I will cross over...

A Small Slice of the Magic Kingdom

My daughter and I went to the Mall today and of course we both gravitated towards the Disney Store. I was completely amused as we walked through the doorway and I took note of the “castmember” who cheerily greeted us and made a point to let us know that they were running a special on swimsuits, “Buy a swimsuit and get a cute little coverup for FREE – a $19.50 value!”, she said while grinning from ear to ear. I thanked her, and we then wandered over to check out the merch. And fine merch it was. Got an adorable Princess swimsuit for my little one with of course the matching Princess coverup. The castmember left us alone while we looked and then reapproached after we’d made our selection to comment on how adorable the suit was and how adorable my daughter was and would be in it. We cruised around in that small little slice of the Magic Kingdom checking out the rest of the merch and then approached the register to pay. There was cheery castmember again, racking up Whuffie at every turn. She rang up the suit and coverup and then magically produced a Donald Duck whistle and, much to my daughter’s delight and my surprise, tossed it in the bag…another freebie. Scored some major Whuffie from my little one! As we departed, she cheerily bid us adieu and then turned to exact her magic on the next guest. It was just so comical…I thought that woman’s whuffie must be through the roof! Ha!

Tech Item

Introducing the "Pitch Solo" an interesting piece of tech' for controlling your PDA from your computer and back? I guess what confuses me is why isn't there a program in your PDA or software for your computer for this already? Another periphreal doesn't seem appealing. Made by Portsmith Review here from SorobanGeeks
via Linkfilter

New twist on old artform

New twist on old artform
Check Berdwin's blog that is a collection of poetry submitted via palmtop, it is pretty dark disturbing poetry verging on madness, but I was mezmorized by the entirety of the idea. Is this the way of the new world minstral? Personal thought streamed in poetic form transferred realtime to the world via handheld via blog? What if Shakespear or William Blake had blogged via wireless?

Lithium Ion a dead end?

Lithium Ion a dead end?
This news from Advanced Technology talks about two different start ups chasing fuel cells for laptop computers. (Note to Tim Oren: May be a worthy stock tip if they go public.) My understanding is that the current top dog Lithium Ion has reached maximum density, and the fuel cell route promises 12-14 hours which would outgun what is available in the current market. Fuel cells for Handdhelds or Cell phones don't sound too probable though do to fuel cell size.

One piece of paper for all info

Thin stainless steel foil becomes "future paper". "Ad signs that change as you walk by", sounds like more of Phillip K. Dicks Minority Report futurescape. Credit cards that tell you your current balance?This article from UK The Mirror has more for those interested in uploading todays paper via net on a lightweight piece of paper, and then using that same paper to read a book at lunch or while on commute. You would think that enviros' would be all over this eliminating of deadtree communications.

Where is Raed ? Salim Pax is back!

Okay aside from the Heinlein quote to the right, I kept my political views off of this blog, I assume those of you who visit here want info about reputation economics and futurism, not another blogger doting on and on like they have some original spin right or left. I feel the same way about celebrities using their fame as a platform, I don't care what they think, can they act? can they sing? I even avoided wartime posts about the GI who attacked his own troops with grenades and how they should have pinged his Whuffie. That disclaimer aside, I think this is very relevant to futurism and they way democracies proliferate now on the internet, how one man can speak to so many. I followed his blog up to a week into the invasion when he got cut off, I held my breathe, praying that he would make it back. His non-partisan yet understandably cynical perspectives are refreshing in the wash of heavy handed partisan banter we find on the net. So check out Salam Pax's blog for an ad hoc view from inside the sandbox.

Also kudos to Jeremy and Judith at futurismic for keeping the dialogue open even when we disagree. And to fine centric discourse from John Schwartz in LA at his blog with this fine peace of verbiage "...finding a new voice and having the courage to selectively blend right and left and the margin in the fight for honesty." That is what I am interested in being a part of politically speaking but who cares what I think? Whew, now that that is over with, back to topic.

In follow up: It occurred to me that I mis-spoke in saying Salim Pax perspectives are "non-partisan", of course they are non-partisan. To clarify what I mean is that I hope that we do not repeat the political behavior that was exhibited here in America should there be a war again. It became impossible to understand what was happening to the people and nation of Iraq, and what we were doing with so much pro and con war opinion. Even now few are talking about what happened, everyone is trying to use information to prove their political position. "Hi I am for the war" How are you? "I am against" Salam "-I am in the war" is so much more relevant and meaningful. I hope that makes more sense, and apologize for not communicating more clearly. If you followed the war or even if you got "warred out" I think it is worth while literature to check this blog. A few choice quotes:
"..every time the bombing starts my brother starts humming Nirvana’s 'Pennyroyal Tea'..."
"..too tired, scared and burnt out to write anything.." "..this might be a good time to sell our souls to the (US) Devil"

Joy of Segs T

Joy of Segs T
Segway fan and blogger is selling unofficial joyofsegs.com t-shirts that discibe the human tranport vehicle. Someone from Segway hire this guy and give him a transport.
Available here.

Futuristic homes insulated with "Space Gel"?

Futuristic homes insulated with "Space Gel"?
Check out this new product called "Areogel" from the people who brought us squeezable catsup packets (NASA). It was initially developed to catch comet and planetary space dust but is also being used as insulation. It is silicon based and 99.8 percent empty space. It has super low thermal conductivity so much so that pictures show crayons and matches being protected from a blowtorch by the gel. Learn more here

Small Claims Court = Negative Whuffie?

This true story about dealing with an inconsiderate telemarketer illustrates how small claims court might be considered the "negative whuffie" of our cash society. Calling to telemarket at 5:24 am definately deserves a negative whuffie hit.
via slashdot