Archive for September, 2010

"Apps are in many ways micro Web browsers. With the rise of cloud computing, open APIs [application programming interfaces] and wireless broadband, apps serve as concentrators, into one neat form factor, of all that used to only be accessible from a Web browser," said Andy Abramson, co-host of "World Technology Round Up" and a representative of the Wireless Life-Sciences Alliance through his role as CEO of marketing consultancy Comunicano Inc. (Del Mar, Calif.). "Over the next five years, we will see more and more apps being deployed, especially as LTE, Mobile WiMax and Wi-Fi become more pervasive."

.:eetimes.com->

The term "ubiquitous computing" was first coined by Mark Weiser around 1988, when he was at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). It referred to not just smart devices that we are seeing more of today, but a network of devices that are integrated into common pieces of everyday life. Some examples were of refrigerators that were aware of the food items inside and the potential menus based on them, or, rooms that were aware of the biometric measurements of the occupants and they might adjust the lighting and temperature appropriately.

.:getfinch.com->

Righthaven v. Klerks

There is an interesting ruling [PDF] in a Righthaven copyright infringement case, one of its tidal wave of copyright infringement cases against bloggers in Nevada, Righthaven v. Klerks et al. TechDirt highlights that the ruling indicates that the judge is willing to listen to the defendants’ argument that there was an implied license. It’s also a case asserting fair use. Anyone blogging would do well to read it, so I have it as text for you.

.:groklaw.net->

UN to Appoint Earth Contact for Aliens

THE United Nations was set today to appoint an obscure Malaysian astrophysicist to act as EarthAs first contact for any aliens that may come visiting.

Mazlan Othman, the head of the UN’s little-known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), is to describe her potential new role next week at a scientific conference at the Royal Society's Kavli conference centre in Buckinghamshire.

She is scheduled to tell delegates that the recent discovery of hundreds of planets around other stars has made the detection of extraterrestrial life more likely than ever before - and that means the UN must be ready to coordinate humanity's response to any "first contact"

.:news.com.au->

…convergence seems more plausible as a way of understanding the past several decades of media change than the old digital revolution paradigm was. Old media are not being displaced. Rather, their functions and status are shifted by the introduction of new technologies. : Henry Jenkins in Convergence Culture

.:futurelab.net->

Fly and spider photographyAfrom Thomas Shahan.

Our conversation went from defining randomness more or less formally to questions likeAare some random sequences more random than others? andAis it really possible to have one good definition for "random"?. It happens (and this time the coincidenceAis relevant) that he had recently read a book which, among other things, talked about randomness. This was the first time I heard about Gregory Chaitin and his book,AThe Limits of Mathematics.

Nature Needs Heroes

Timberland’s latest marketing campaign for theirAEarthkeepers footwear collection, which uses recycled rubber and recycled PET (one and a half plastic bottles are used in each pair of Earthkeepers™ boots), asks consumers to consider how they can be "heroes" for the great outdoors-hence it’s name: "Nature Needs Heroes." To kick off the campaign and showcase the Earthkeepers Spring 2011 collection, they asked press to attend an event on Governor’s Island in New York City. I couldn’t make it so I asked for photos from the event and more info on their interactive marketing campaign. They happily acquiesced:

.:treehugger.com->

Prediction Markets

Prediction Markets are an implementation of the broader concept ofACollective Intelligence. In general, Collective Intelligence is an intelligence that emerges from the shared knowledge of individuals which can then be used to make decisions. With Prediction Markets (PM), this intelligence emerges through the use of market mechanisms (buying/selling securities) where the pay out depends upon the outcomes of future events. In short, the collective is attempting to predict the future.

Prediction Markets should be familiar to us because a stock market is really just a forum for making predictions about the value of some underlying security. Participants buy and sell shares in a company, for example, based on information they feel is relevant to the future value of that company. A security’s price is an aggregated bit of information that is not only a prediction about the future, but is also new information from which more predictions can be made. That last part is important because prices are information that cause participants to act in a market.

.:wpdupre.blogspot.com->