Found this story about a wrist based Sony Device that allows for the control of Android based phones via bluetooth online. It is compatible with many Android 2.1 or newer based phones. Price $150. Cool, but not sure I would drop that on a modified remote, though I would pay that for a good watch.

Interesting news at Velo News a few weeks back. Shimano is upping Dura Acce’s rear cassette to 11 in their 2013 offering. This will match Campy’s 11 speed rear end which has been on the market for 3 years. The 2013 Dura Ace set will be series 9000 (a change from the current 7900 series). It is assumed that the 11 speed Ultegra set will be the 8000 series in 2014.

In other cycling notes, it seems that the new electronic Ultegra Di2 series will soon to be arriving at a bike manufacturers (and then at the local bike shop) soon.

Several months ago I found a interesting story at CNN.com about how an American inventor of solor powered bulbs was attempting to both help build third world economies, via building village based businesses, and also change how social aid is handled / viewed world wide. Full post here.

The two most interesting quotes in this story follow –

First, Katsaros had to answer a key question that would determine how he would have the strongest impact: should his company be nonprofit, or for-profit?

Katsaros found inspiration from the 2008 book by Paul Polak, “Out of Poverty.”

Polak, who has worked in developing nations for 30 years, believes that the charity model of aid used by nonprofit organizations doesn’t work — despite its good intentions.

The best way to help people, according to Polak, is to treat them as consumers. If you can sell to them, he says, you can help them.

“In the beginning I was a nut case and nobody paid attention,” Polak says. “The consensus was 30 years ago that this is what caused poverty, and to be involved in business was outrageous and evil.”

Today, that is starting to change, he says. But that doesn’t mean that nongovernmental organizations have rolled out the red carpet for Polak’s ideas.

“Many NGOs say it’s making money on the back of the poor, but I love to make money on the back of the poor,” Polak says.

“You can feel really good about yourself giving stuff away … but if you are going to sell things to people, you need to have respect for them because no one is going to buy something if you have contempt for them.”

“If you have a village that’s used to the dole, it’s very hard to get them off of the dole,” Polak says. “We have to face the fact that conventional development aid has failed.

“It just doesn’t work.”

The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety did a very interesting crash test, a 1959 Bel Air vs a 2009 Malibu. It is designed to show how much automobile safety has improved in the last 50 years. The results are very interesting. Car Crash

A friend of mine sent me a link about a interesting story about a London hotel that has installed three integral wind turbines into the building. It is London’s Strata SE1, a 43-story, 408-apartment project, and it is the first building in the world to do that. The three turbines generate approximately 8% of the energy needs of this remarkable structure, nicknamed “The Razor” Full site and info here

Mission Bicycle announced they are now selling a wearable lock. The lock is warn around the waist like a belt with a 26″ to 44″ inch adjustability. Mission is the exclusive US distributer apparently. Very cool, very useful, and a great idea. Story here

Porsche has a new hybird sports car, the Spyder 918, coming out (story here) . The car gets 78mpg and cost $845,000. Even with gas at $4 a gallon that is a a long payback over cars like Prius’s, Leaf’s, Volt’s, and heck even a Hummer H2 may never cost you $800,000 (assuming you pay $45K (Kelly Blue Book with low mileage) for the a 2008 H2). Makes the 10K Camry getting 30mpg look STRONG!!! LOL

Though many are discussing the parts of Paul Allen’s forthcoming biography where he, Mr. Allen, alleges that Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and others tried to cheat him out of a large part and the value of Microsoft’s stock. To me though the more interesting thing is Mr Allen’s discussing (summarized at FT.com here) where and how Microsoft got offtrack and feel behind. The three key area’s Mr Allen points too are Microsoft’s size (inability to react due to internal politics and legacy frameworks), the corporate culture (fiefdom’s and intellectual isolation between departments and sectors), and lack of visionary leadership (less capable managers, and Steve Ballmer’s fast follower mindset). Overall these are the same things I personally have said about the Redmond gang for a long time.

That said, I still run more Window’s boxes then I do Mac or Linux ones, though my Android collection is growing.

Current computer count –

Myself @ Home – 2 Window’s Desktop’s online (one dual booting XP / 7 and one XP only), 2 windows laptop’s (1 XP, 1 Windows 7), a G4 Mac, a Linux box, a ready to power up backup offline XP desktop, and a personal Android smartphone.

Myself @ work – a XP desktop, a XP laptop, and a Andriod tablet assigned to me. Regular access to a shared Windows 7 tablet.

In my garage @ home and offline – one good XP box looking for a good home, and 3 old 2000 / XP PC’s that need to be recycled.

My wife @ home – a Windows XP desktop, a Windows 7 laptop, and a Windows Phone 6.0 smartphone currently, but is considering a move to a Windows Phone 7 model later this year.

My wife @ work – a XP desktop

So even with Microsoft having problem most of what my wife and myself use and access daily are based on Microsoft products. The only platform with increases around us in the last year has been Andriod based devices.

Well it seems that the eBook is here to stay as even the Knoxville Public Library (known to many as one of the slowest reacting governmental agencies East of Nashville) has begun to actively “check out” eBooks. They are offering them in online now – story here. Every hipster on Market Square rejoiced in unison before ordering another latte and a brownie.

I am sure that Al Gore will soon be figure out a way to reappear from the vast abyss of middle TN and take credit for leading this incentive along with telling us how he revolutionizing TV with CurrentTV. The world has yet to see the Current revolution that he predicted. Unfortunately for Al, that was one revolution which was barely televised, or barely noticed.

Computer School.org has a VERY interesting graphic up about the actual size of Google. It is AMAZING just how big and vast this corp is, as well as sharing some facts about Google in general.

Infographic by computer school.org

Ray Kurzweil, a man that I have always found to be creative, inventive and genius, but who I disagree with on several major issues, has felt for several years that it is not a matter of if, but a matter of when that computers will become self aware and more intelligent then humans. From this break through will come immortal humans and computer’s which make ethical decisions and evaluate art for example. Much of Kurzweil’s thoughts are covered by his theory of singularity. The wiki for technological singularity states that Kurzweil defines singularity as –

the concept in terms of the technological creation of superintelligence, and allege that a post-singularity world would be unpredictable to humans due to an inability of human beings to imagine the intentions or capabilities of superintelligent entities..

Kurzweil is the inventor of things like the reading machine for the blind, the voice activated typewriter (VAT), and the Kurzweil synthesizer. In the past he has predicted the fall of governments due to increases in technology which allow the free flow of thoughts, and the rise of the internet. Now Kurzweil believes that computers in 2045, if not before, will reach the point of singularity and immortality for humans will occur due to increases in nanotechnology and medical advances.

Regardless of your view of Kurzweil and his ideas, a recent piece in Time is a very interesting story. I would advise everyone to give it a read and a think here.

Kurzweil on “I’ve Got A Secret” in 1965

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Currently the IBM based Watson computer is winning on Jeopardy. Post Here

cables wireless

I find it very interesting that a company named CABLES UNLIMITED is making WIRELESS systems.