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In touch with your inner geek…

May 30, 2005 By Leave a Comment

For years people have frequently said to me, “Gee…you’re kind of a geek aren’t you?” Though my outside package and demeanor makes many people just assume that I’m “a suit”, I have to admit that I’m a closet geek and am very intellectually curious about all things tech that most think scream “geek” and “nerd”.

But I believe that geek/nerd=propellerhead-who-smells-funny-and-loves-computers isn’t the norm any longer. Nor is geekdom or being nerdy the exclusive domain of those of us in technology. Just like my blog covers open source software, space science, nanotechnology, sentient computing, the internet and other things people have described as “eclectic“, I find geeks and nerds in *every* discipline — especially as technological advances touch them all (I’d even say one of my sisters-in-law is a “quilt geek” as she is really passionate and in-to quilting technology, etc.).

I’m often asked how I stay on top of what’s going on in the world of technology. I read many different books, of course, but here are a handful of my favorite stops on the ‘net that keep my geekiness fed:

  • Slashdot: News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters. This is *the* #1 stop for nerds and geeks.
  • Freshnews.org: Great news compilation site about open source, etc.
  • Wired: Still the best all around magazine and great site too (I also have the premiere issue and probably the first several dozen…and have been a subscriber from day one)
  • New Scientist: Love this site as it covers science…and lots of it.
  • CNet’s News.com: Great place to keep your fingers-on-the-pulse
  • Engadget: Fun daily stop to see what’s new in gadgetry
  • Gizmag: Even cooler as it covers A LOT of different gizmo’s and doohickey stuff.

I have many more sites I visit daily (and lots of blogs I go to as well), but this is a good start and covers quite a bit.

Filed Under: Computing, Technology, Web 2.0

Oil, Iraq, China and the U.S.: The geopolitics of “freedom and democracy”

May 29, 2005 By 1 Comment

Had an interesting conversation last night at a gathering I was at that made me think about how quickly we’ll run out of oil and what that might have to do with our foreign policy of “spreading freedom and democracy” and the war in Iraq. Then today — during my reading adventure on the ‘net like most days –  I came across this fascinating and balanced article in China Daily entitled, “Experts: Petroleum may be nearing peak.“

“Could the petroleum joyride — cheap, abundant oil that has sent the global economy whizzing along with the pedal to the metal and the AC blasting for decades — be coming to an end?”

The article talks about experts on both sides of the debate. A guy I’d heard about before, M. King Hubbert, sounded the alarm a LONG time ago and was mentioned in this article, “Back in 1956, a geologist named M. King Hubbert predicted that U.S. oil production would peak in 1970.

His superiors at Shell Oil were aghast. They even tried to persuade Hubbert not to speak publicly about his work. His peers, accustomed to decades of making impressive oil discoveries, were skeptical.

But Hubbert was right. U.S. oil production did peak in 1970, and it has declined steadily ever since. Even impressive discoveries such as Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, with 13 billion barrels in recoverable reserves, haven’t been able to reverse that trend.“

Iraq provides a strategic position in the Middle East. Controlling Iraq and having a base in the Middle East means we’ll get *our* oil…no matter what. Part of my conversation last night was about the war in Iraq: “We went there because of terrorism and 9/11” my non-critical-thinking conversation companion insisted. “It’s got nothing to do with oil.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Current Affairs

SourceForge breaks the 100,000 open source project barrier!

May 27, 2005 By Leave a Comment

For a few years I’ve been following many of the projects on Sourceforge.net and use several of them personally. Projects such as Audacity, Filezilla, Gallery, Gimp, Fire, Streamripper, and many others. Imagine my delight when I visited the site tonight and saw that, “SourceForge.net Surpasses 100,000 Projects!” Seems like it was late last Fall when there were approximately 85,000 projects. Why the surge?

If you don’t already know, “SourceForge.net is the world’s largest Open Source software development web site, providing free hosting to tens of thousands of projects. The mission of SourceForge.net is to enrich the Open Source community by providing a centralized place for Open Source developers to control and manage Open Source software development. To fulfill this mission goal, we offer a variety of services to projects we host, and to the Open Source community.”

What I’m about to write will definitely “out” me as the closet geek I am: sometimes I’ll grab my laptop in the evening and browse the projects on Sourceforge. While this may seem a little bizarre (or make you wonder, “how boring *is* this guy anyway?”), every one of the projects I listed above were ones I stumbled across on Sourceforge by just poking around.

There are some really great personal computer-based projects and they’re quick to download and try out. What I some times wrestle with though, is that I’m not technically competent enough to perform due diligence on the features, function, code and merits of projects that are enterprise-class in scope. Still, when I’m told by a Gartner analyst that, “…and Compiere ERP/CRM is quickly becoming ready for prime-time and is close to midlevel enterprise-class” I sit up and take notice. Adding to this analyst’s view of the merit of Open Source projects and the effort and energy being expended on them, the home page of the Sourceforge site states in part:

“…we’ve seen an amazing surge in projects posted to SourceForge.net over the past several months. We think this is due in part to the traction that Open Source is making in the enterprise as more and more companies and organizations begin to migrate and adopt Open Source technologies.“

Hmmm….are we at critical mass with Open Source software?

Filed Under: Open Source

Make your brain better

May 26, 2005 By Leave a Comment

New Scientist is running an article on “11 Steps to a Better Brain” that I found fascinating. Specifically these snippets leapt off the page:

“…with the help of modafinil, sleep-deprived people can perform even better than their well-rested, unmedicated selves. The forfeited rest doesn’t even need to be made good. Military research is finding that people can stay awake for 40 hours, sleep the normal 8 hours, and then pull a few more all-nighters with no ill effects.”

“…many people are using Ritalin not because they suffer from attention deficit or any other disorder, but because they want superior concentration during exams or heavy-duty negotiations.”

“…go to the top of the class by eating breakfast. The brain is best fueled by a steady supply of glucose, and many studies have shown that skipping breakfast reduces people’s performance at school and at work.

But it isn’t simply a matter of getting some calories down. According to research published in 2003, kids breakfasting on fizzy drinks and sugary snacks performed at the level of an average 70-year-old in tests of memory and attention.”

This last part was about a study of nun’s in a convent right here in Minnesota, “…a study of its 75 to 107-year-old inhabitants is revealing more about keeping the brain alive and healthy than perhaps any other to date.” The study was undertaken due to the longevity of the nun’s and that many of them — after death and autopsy — were revealed to be in severe states of dementia though showed no outward symptoms.

I’ve written about brain hacks, how your brain is wired, ADD/ADHD stuff and more. There are alot of great resources and articles on the ‘net about all of these areas that are focused on brain and mind enhancement — like one blogger I follow religiously, Zack Lynch (in fact, you can use Zack’s blog as a launching pad to access tons ‘o sites and blogs about this category).

Filed Under: Brain/Mind

Dave Winer on the Apple iTunes podcasting announcement…

May 25, 2005 By Leave a Comment

Still think that Apple’s announcement (see previous post) that Dave Winer wrote about today, provides a very interesting perspective that this is going to be very powerful, that Apple is in the catbird’s seat and that RSS is *the* enabling technology to have made this happen at all.

If you want to read what *a lot* of other bloggers are saying about this, take a peek at these links from Technorati.

Filed Under: Podcasting

iTunes 4.9 to offer support for podcasts….

May 23, 2005 By Leave a Comment

Big news over at Engadget and on other sites: the next version of iTunes will support podcasting.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that:

"The new version of iTunes will let users of Apple’s music management program and integrated online music store find and download podcasts, which are homemade radio-style shows that have become a grassroots phenomenon on the Internet.

"Already millions of people are subscribing to these podcasts,” Jobs said. "I think this is going to send it into orbit.”

Jobs gave a preview of the software at D: All Things Digital, an annual technology conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. He later said the new version of iTunes won’t be released for a "few months.”

I agree it’ll send podcasting in to "orbit" but there is also a clear opportunity for Apple: allow podcasters a way to monetize our podcasts and generate revenue for Apple. Why? I listen to podcasts every day instead of the radio or any of the hundreds of songs I’ve purchased from the iTunes music store. This is a problem if Apple wants to continue to drive revenue from the iTunes music store.

Here are some suggestions that will make this a viable business model for Apple:

  1. Publish quality guidelines for a podcast (fairly straightforward to do one in Garageband but output is NOT certain to be broadcast quality) as well as provide testing tools or ways to ensure levels are set appropriately, etc.
  2. Rather than have podcasters wrestle with signing up for a BMI or ASCAP license to have music as part of a podcast, get this out of the way for them so any piece of music in the iTunes music store is usable as part of a podcast
  3. Allow podcasters to get a piece of the action and monetize their podcasts (subscription model for all podcasts would be good…with aggregate payment based on number of downloads). Following the Amazon.com model for Associates.Amazon.com which allows accruals based on number of click-through purchases from blogs.

Pretty exciting stuff and I’m glad Apple is taking a leadership position in this new phenomena.

Filed Under: Podcasting

Potkast: new super directory of podcasts…

May 22, 2005 By Leave a Comment

Podcasting keeps accelerating! This new site called “Potkast” has a great user interface, podcasts by category and country, and even a search function (and I even found my own podcasts by searching for “Borsch”).

With Adam Curry getting his own podcast show on Sirius satellite radio, Leo Laporte (formerly of TechTV fame) and his former TTV cronies new show “This Week in Tech” apparently picked up by a radio station (may be the downtrending KYCY who decided to go “all podcasting”), this podcasting phenomena is getting pretty exciting.

Of course, for the handful of people who’ve listened to my heretofore modest podcasts, my efforts may not be all that exciting. I still submit that there will be a ‘radio’ show for everyone who wants to do one and a show for nearly every taste. I wonder how this is going to affect the music services like iTunes, Napster and Yahoo? I’ve been downloading TONS of content for free and have plenty to listen to without buying anything…and this trend will continue.

Filed Under: Podcasting, Web 2.0

FAA: No Billboards in Space

May 20, 2005 By Leave a Comment

Imagine looking up in the night sky and — instead of looking for the Big Dipper or thinking about a galaxy far, far away — you instead see a lit up advertisement for, say, Marlboro’s.

According to this Reuters article, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has proposed to amend its charter to allow them to enforce a law against “obtrusive” advertising up in space.

Don’t know how the United States can stop another country from launching rockets that would deploy orbiting advertisements over our country (maybe I’m just ignorant of actual international laws already in place to stop it). As soon as something is possible, there is always someone there to exploit it. Heck…just look at what it’s like when you’re in Disney World, a football game in an open-air stadium, or on a crowded Florida beach and planes trailing banners suddenly appear overhead.

<sarcasm> There’s a lot of perfectly good darkness every night just crying out to be filled with ads. </sarcasm>

Filed Under: Innovation, Technology

Swimming with your iPod

May 19, 2005 By Leave a Comment

It’s Summer and some of us can’t be without our tunes or podcasts.

Music definitely makes exercise more interesting…and having been on the swim team in high school (and spent many a morning in lap-after-lap in a pool for over an hour), I sure woulda loved having a housing for an iPod!

Surfers, wakeboarders, water skiers, and swimmers can now strap on a convenient and secure armband or swim belt and take their iPod out for a day of music-accompanied activity. Read more and see more photos.

Filed Under: Gadgets & Hacks

CTD Podcast for May 18, 2005

May 18, 2005 By Leave a Comment

A second podcast (15 minutes, 24 seconds) on a speech by Bill Moyers’ speech to the National Conference for Media Reform as well as a brief rant about the secret Patriot II Congressional discussions occurring and that mainstream media aren’t asking the tough questions.

Listen to or download the podcast…

Filed Under: CTD Podcast, Current Affairs, Podcasting
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