2005 November

Interesting brain articles today…

November 30, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Almost on a daily basis I am surrounded by information about the acceleration of learning that is going on regarding the brain. Two items hit my radar screen today and were worth noting immediately:

1) Insulin Study Backs Theory Alzheimer’s May Be Type of Diabetes: Alzheimer’s disease researchers at Rhode Island Hospital and Brown Medical School said they found more evidence that the condition may be a new type of diabetes, or insulin deficiency, specific to the brain…

2) Are smarter people better at ignoring things?:

People frequently complain that they can’t remember things — and they wish their brains had more storage capacity, like today’s ever-expanding computer hard drives and RAM. If we could just improve the sheer size of our memory, we’d be able to retain and manipulate more data, and we’d become smarter and smarter — right?

Not according to an intriguing new experiment by brain scientists at the University of Oregon. Edward Vogel and a team of students took a handful of volunteers and tested their “visual working memory” — their ability to maintain awareness of events and objects around them.

Filed Under: Brain/Mind

“The World is Open vs. Flat”

November 30, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

According to this UK Financial Times article, Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat, is contemplating his second edition — which Friedman is currently writing — be thrown in to open source (somewhat akin to Wikipedia) so that readers can update the content dynamically and instantaneously.

It is a vision that will turn his publishers – Penguin/Allen Lane in the UK and Farrar Straus Giroux in the US – pale with anxiety about the copyright implications, not to mention the risk that opponents of the book or its message about the benefits of globalisation will try to hijack the wiki edition. But it is a vision that is perfectly in tune with the picture of a globalised and interÃƒâ€šÃ‚connected world that Mr Friedman outlines.

A version of the book that can be constantly updated may also be the only way to guarantee that it remains current. The book’s premise is that, at the beginning of this century, the world entered a new phase of globalisation, based on disruptive social, political and technological events (“flatteners”, as Mr Friedman calls them) during the latter part of the 20th century.

This is a premise for publishing that I sincerely hopes catches on and quickly. While reading John Batelle’s book The Search the day it hit the bookstore shelves, I realized that several fundamental developments in search had occurred in the months preceding publishing that would’ve been good to include. With the lead time in publishing, however, that is not feasible.

So here we go again with content cartel members (in this case publishers of books) that need to wrestle with and change their business model, just like the record and movie associations (and television networks) are being compelled to do in this age of nearly instant dissemination of digital bits.

Filed Under: Innovation, Open Source

Too many organizers…too little time…and it’s time to simplify

November 29, 2005 By Steve Borsch 3 Comments

Today I missed meeting a friend for lunch and feel like a complete butthead. I’ve got plenty of excuses (our house is being remodeled for one) but the real reasons is this: I have too many organizers and too many places to keep updated — and I had the appointment on my personal Blackberry but it was turned off while I’m at work since I don’t want to carry around two Blackberries.

All these PDA’s and Blackberries were supposed to make sure that we had our life, our to-do’s and our communications at our fingertips. It’s supposed to be easy, but I find “feeding the beast of data and keeping all the beasts in line” is a never-ending saga.

I have a Blackberry 7230 for work that sync’s with my work calendar in Lotus Notes. I refrain from keeping my personal stuff on my work laptop which includes my calendar and email.

I have a personal Blackberry 7100 that sync’s with my home Powermac. The kicker? During the house remodel I’ve been relying on my Powerbook as my main machine and iCal (Apple’s calendar program which I use for personal appointments and tasks) is up-to-date on my home machine as is my main address book.

I know that I can sync across devices, operating systems and programs or pay a monthly fee for Apple’s .Mac program to sync my Mac boxes up with each other. But all I want to do is to have this be SEAMLESS and EASY. Though I wrestled with using Gmail for my main email program — since Google can target ads that wrap around each email — the benefit of having my email in ONE PLACE accessible from ANY MACHINE makes it worth it (I used to get email on my Powerbook in Apple’s Mail program and then go to my Powermac or the HP laptop I have and NOT have it available to me…what a crazymaker).

If Google adds a calendar to Gmail…that will be my main one and, hopefully, they’ll have figured out how to sync PDA’s, phones and Blackberries to their server-side offerings.

By the way, I have four email addresses that all forward to my Gmail account but 3 of the 4 require me to maintain them. Once a month or so I have to login to the webmail client of each and delete emails en masse. Time to simplify…

Filed Under: Gadgets & Hacks, Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness

Connecting the Dots podcast for November 27, 2005

November 27, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

In the now classic Christmas movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) feeling trapped in “this crummy little town” has his world crash down around him. In Martini’s bar, he talks to God praying to please “show me the way.”

Most of us may not have seen how God resolved George’s dilemma if not for a copyright accident.

You may know the story of why this five-times-nominated (but never won while fading in to obscurity) for an Academy Award movie but if not, listen to this week’s podcast and how the story of It’s a Wonderful Life is an allegory for the current situation we all face with stale copyright laws, a remix culture, and the enabling tools combining to accelerate the demand for new ways of thinking about content and its protection.

Also listen to the segment “The Radar Screen” which covers topics that hit Steve Borsch’s radar screen this past week.

Listen to or download this week’s podcast

Filed Under: Blogosphere, CTD Podcast, Current Affairs, Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness, Podcasting

Holographic storage to the rescue in 2006?

November 26, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

I’ve been chasing backup storage for years. It seems as the moment my backup capacity is larger than my hard drive size — like when 80-100MB drives were the standard and I had a 100MB Zip disk — hard drive standard sizes grew. Today, I’ve got two 250GB hard drives in my tower and one 250GB external Maxtor so I can never fully backup both drives.

What I end up doing is backing up to DVD-R at about 4GB’s or so at a time. Crucial files are backed up and I figure I can always reinstall applications. Still, I’d love to simply have greater backup capacity than my hard disks on my main machine and be able to back up *everything* besides all my videos, photos and files on to DVD-R.

Holographic storage to the rescue in 2006?

In an article in New Scientist magazine, 300GB DVD’s are within months of shipping:

A computer disc about the size of a DVD that can hold 60 times more data is set to go on sale in 2006. The disc stores information through the interference of light â€“ a technique known as holographic memory.

The discs, developed by InPhase Technologies, based in Colorado, US, hold 300 gigabytes of data and can be used to read and write data 10 times faster than a normal DVD. The company, along with Japanese partner Hitachi Maxell announced earlier in November that they would start selling the discs and compatible drives from the end of 2006.

There is an older article (from 2000) on PhysicsWeb — or this one on HowStuffWorks — that’s worth a read if you’re interested in more technical background of holographic storage.

Now whether DVD-R’s with that capacity — and affordable recorders for our personal computers — ship in 2006 remains to be seen. But it sure seems like we’re close to massive removable storage media that may finally outpace internal, affordable hard disk storage.

Filed Under: Computing, Innovation, Technology

Thanksgiving: from a native American’s perspective

November 24, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

As my wife, kids and I enjoy our Thanksgiving holiday and give thanks for how blessed we are, I can’t help but consider what others are feeling on this holiday…namely native Americans.

Imagine it’s 1805 instead of 2005. You’re a Plains native living off the land and the >60 million (yep…MILLION) bison that roam the plains. The abundance you have — in land and animal — is considerable. Undoubtedly you would give thanks to your spiritual beings. The natives did this and more: they also paid homage to the bison and what they’d give up (their life) to feed and clothe the natives. This was not something taken lightly by them.

After decimating the native populations in the East, the Europeans move West (and around the place I live, present day Minnesota) and kill the bison for sport and to take away the primary food source of the natives. The people are hunted down and forced to live on reservations.

For the most part, native Americans do not celebrate this Thanksgiving holiday. This day is not one of joy nor is it a celelbration. In fact, some natives head to Plymouth Rock (the place purported to be the landing of the Pilgrims, their interaction with the natives and thus the bountiful feast that is the Thanksgiving holiday of today) and for the native people of our country, today is a national day of mourning for what was lost.

A strong native America point of view here

There is an interesting perspective from a native American who celebrates Thanksgiving here

Abraham Lincoln’s official 1863 proclamation starting the Thanksgiving holiday is here.

As I grew up, even thinking about the perspective of a long ago vanquished people (the native Americans) was something I wasn’t taught nor cared much about. As I’ve grown older, I have frequently brought up thoughts about how our countries native people’s got the short-end-of-the-stick in days gone by. Friends of mine would say, “Borsch…get over it. They lost.” and all discussion would end.

Anyway…there’s some more food for thought today along with your turkey…

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness

High Speed Internet in Hotels

November 23, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

It’s frustrating to be nickel-n-dimed in hotels (here’s your complimentary bottle of Evian…for $4.50). When I stay in 4 or 5 star hotels, I am even more agitated when gouged especially when it comes to using high speed internet.

There are many people (including me) that want high speed internet to be free in hotels — just like the water that comes out of the faucet. Do hoteliers? Of course not…since they want to protect revenues from their in-room telephones supposedly. But when was the last time *you* used a telephone in a hotel room? For me, it’s probably been three years since I always use my cell phone to make calls.

To understand one point of view (the companies that cater to hoteliers), let’s look at an abstract from a white paper offered by a marketing company, SDD:

White Paper: Strategies For Protecting Future Guest Internet Revenue
(Submitted to Hospitality Upgrade Magazine)

Charge for Internet Access. A recent survey of hotel guests found general agreement that broadband internet access should be free in hotel guest rooms. This is interesting since these guests (and their employers) pay for access everywhere else in their life. In this world of hidden agendas, who wants access charges to be free? Answer: 1. The owners of e-commerce and content portals who seek unrestricted public access to their goods and services! 2. The providers of internet routers and devices whose revenues grow proportionally with the increase in internet traffic presumed by free access. Who does not want it free? Answer: Anybody who must implement the infrastructure to support broadband access including the carriers, hoteliers, and commercial property owners and managers.

Nary a mention of Skype use further killing hotel telephony revenues. Or the future of television and movie delivery increasingly being offered online. Demand for high speed internet will increase dramatically over the next five years and not only put the last nail in the coffin for in-room telephony, but also negatively impact in-room television and movie revenues.

I think charging for internet use in hotels will continue and maybe increase though I’m NOT happy about it. Someone does have to pay for the connectivity and the infrastructure, especially as increasing demand for faster and faster speeds by savvy consumers keeps raising the competitive bar between hotels.

Filed Under: Technology

Open Source: The Capitalists Friend or Foe?

November 22, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Is open source a friend or a foe of capitalists? Depends on whether you’re already established as a software vendor (and have to defend yourself against it) or you’re a startup wanting to get to market quickly (or you’re funding said startup).

Slate has a fabulous article about open source and the perspective of SAP’s CTO Shai Agassi…which echoes what Bill Gates has said in the past as well as Steve Ballmer. The article starts out like this:

This month, SAP‘s Shai Agassi referred to open-source software as “intellectual property socialism.” In January, Bill Gates suggested that free-software developers are communists. A few years earlier, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called the open-source operating system Linux “a cancer.” Considering what these guys say in public, I wonder what dark words they utter in private…that al-Qaida uses open-source software to plot terrorist attacks?

The philosophy behind open-source software is simple. Instead of zealously protecting source code—the blood and guts of any computer program—open source encourages any programmer to tear apart the code and build it back up again. The theory is that this collaborative process encourages innovation and decreases bugs by increasing the number of people with a stake in the project.

How could they have any other perspective?

Here’s the kicker though. While listening to John Furrier’s Podtech InfoTalk series of podcasts — where he talks often with venture capitalists — one refrain was a constant from the VC’s: they expect that any startup software company *will* leverage open source software. The primary reason? There is so much open source software right now (Sourceforge shows 106,235 open source projects) that using it accelerates startups so quickly that it’s now an expectation for getting funding.

Filed Under: Open Source

Connecting the Dots podcast for November 20, 2005

November 20, 2005 By Steve Borsch 1 Comment

The topics of this week’s show are:

a) The Audible “new format” announcement and its impact on podcasters,

b) Tapping in to the Collective Consciousness for Fun & Profit,

c) Connecting (with people…not dots).

Listen to or Download this week’s show

Filed Under: CTD Podcast, Podcasting

Connecting…

November 17, 2005 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

One great benefit to writing this blog as well as doing my weekly podcast has been connections with people. Not only have I had old friends, former colleagues and acquaintances discover me, but they’ve reached out and we’ve ended up connecting again.

The most delightful series of connections has come about when people in different parts of the world have emailed me or commented on my blog. I’ve had nice dialogues with people in Bali, Okinawa, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and in almost every state in the U.S. In addition, I’ve had people want to introduce me to others and — as a way of introduction — have pointed them to my blog first and then had them connect with me by phone or email.

I’ve also had people say to me upon meeting them, “Hey! I’ve read your blog.” which is a nice conversation starter since we can commiserate about various topics I’ve posted about and/or they have. At the Web 2.0 conference I handed out my day job business card and said, “This is what I do” and handed a second, personal Connecting the Dots card (with my blog address and podcasting page URL) and said, “This is who I am.” Personally communicating with these mediums clearly does allow more of my thoughts, essence and passions to be brought forth…which helps make those connections.

So if you blog (or are thinking of doing so) and the talk turns to monetizing your blog or podcast, just remember that there are other intrinsic values in personal communications.

Filed Under: Blogosphere, Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness