January 2006 Archives
In the past months, I've been reading a lot about various campaigns to battle the problem of ubiquitious cellular coverage. None seem all that great. The idea of mesh-networks is interesting, though seemingly difficult to effectively put into practice. The networks themselves are a huge issue, as they must be fast, reliable, and open. Protecting the nodes would present an obvious problem—taking into account the given fact that there would be maliscious attacks on the structure—hampering speedy delivery of content.
Another slightly novel idea currently dominating the blogs is Cell-Balloons. This seems incredibly anachronistic, almost like a quaint look at the future from the early 20th century. The balloons would float above an area at an altitude greater than the pathways of commercial airliners, and the trancievers would be jetisoned from the balloons as they left said area.
The current solution of towers is hugely expensive, and not at all practical. Creating a good infrastructure is a daunting task, especially when so much stake has been placed in the current [milquetoast] solution. Embeded technology is certainly necesary at this point, as no ready alternatives present themselves.
According to the NYTimes, Microsoft is proposing a computer disguised as a mobile phone. The phone would be connected to a television and keyboard for functionality. I like the direction, as cell-phones growing increasingly prevelant. However, I think the problems faced are the same. These cell-phones would not be the sexy Nokias that people lust over. I'm sure these would be remeniscent of the Zach Morris (of Saved By the Bell fame) phones of the early 90s.
The article mentioned mesh-networks as a means of sharing internet connections. MIT's N. Negroponte proposed this as a reasonable alternative to dedicated connections. I'm not sure how extensively they tested this, but with cell-phone technology, this could be a great acheivement if figured in to the Microsoft push for mobile computers. I do see a problem in cell technology in developing nations, something that must be fairly evident: where are the towers?
Last week, I finally upgraded my cell-phone—from a Motorola V60s (good for hammering nails) to a Nokia 6682. What can you look forward to?
Moblogging
More J2ME development
Annoying pictures
Rampant text-messaging
SMS/Web social applications
I don't feel ready to give a decent review of this thing yet, but give me another week and I might throw something up. So far, its great. My only issues have been with memory shortages, though nothing really problematic. The camera is decent, and the web-capabilities are okay. The thing is a little bulky, but hey, it beats a PDA.
Two interesting finds in the news today concerning GPS. As much as I knock the technology, it's out there, and it's available (for the most part). And, short of organizing a grass-roots find/geocode all the cell towers (I keep coming back to this idea...) movement, well, GPS is out there and available.
Rakon Ltd announced development of the world's smallest GPS module—"as tiny as a baby's fingernail". The module is reportedly extremely accurate, and simple to incorporate in devices.
The second find involves a GPS tracking device/service from Tracking The World.com. The system requires a small tracking module that can be placed on the object/person to be tracked, and an infrastructure that allows tracking information to be accessed via the web or through SMS messages. Pretty cool, huh?
Finally getting around to reading Emergence. I like it.
I first came across Steven Johnson last semester in Red Burns' Applications class. He was a guest lecturer midway through the semester. The focus of his lecture was on his new title Everything Bad is Good for You, which, arguably, is not as exciting as Emergence. Still, he is an interesting figure in the (pop) social and cultural theory world and thus had some interesting things to say.
Last semester, some people in Dano's Networked Expressions class brought up an interesting alternative to GPS. No, I don't mean Gumspots. Getting a location from cell-phone signal strength is common use in 911 emergences, but US phone carriers aren't making the technology available to developers. Heather mentioned Python's ability to glean signal strength on Symbian phones (Nokia series-60), but that still leaves the question of "where are the damn towers?" Perhaps someone should start a guerilla movement to find and geocode all the cell-towers in NYC.
Turns out those lucky Brits have it easy, as demonstrated by World Tracker. This is actually quite scary.
The good folks over at Nokia Research are working on porting Apache httpd to run on Symbian phones. Imagine the possibilities! Commenters over at digg are giving mixed opinions, although the majority can be summed up as "what the hell for?" Me? I think it's great!
Clear Channel and other broadcast names have begun broadcasting HD radio. With this technology, radio quality is significantly improved, FM channels reaching near-CD sound. This is quite different from Satellite Radio, and provides for the broadcast option without subscriber-based services. I feel that radio is old news, HD or otherwise. Give us more mobile internet broadcasts and streams!
Roland over at SmartMobs brings up the interesting concept of graphical passwords. Text passwords are relatively limited and insecure (read: easy to guess), as they often are individually meaningful or otherwise easy-to-remember phrase. Graphic images would offer a greater level of protection and be more difficult to emulate/devise.
In the past month, I've been toying with similar ideas, focusing either on semacode or tags... or maybe just a rubic's cube.
Nicolas Nova over at Pasta and Vinegar blogged an article titled A Generation Serves Notice: It's a moving target about the new generations and their dillema with technology-centric cultural development. He made some interesting points regarding social and individual development as effected by keeping up.
In this tech-centric world, the younger generation is caught up in the cultural fetishism of developing trends : technology. This really seems like the keeping up with the Jones mentality of previous generations—but this iteration is less competative than it is viral.
The article also presents a semblance of a social-mesh network, where the grape-vine effect passes around trends—which is actually more powerful than traditional broadcast marketing and publicism.
Convergence 2.0 is bringing back an old-school broadcast concept, revitalized by Google, Spot Runner, among others.
Interesting interview with Kwan Lee (MIT) on viral radio over at the Connected Traveler (via SmartMobs). This is really fascinating stuff. If only Bluetooth wasn't such crap...
Interesting read in the NYtimes Tech section today. Touches on a good number of SMS related subjects, such as national preferences, linguistics, content delivery, validation, etc. Teen stenographers apparently make good SMSers.
"Sing hvnly mewz dat on d :X mtntp inspyrd dat shephrd hu 1st tot d chozn seed in d begnin hw d hvn n erth @{rcub};-- outa chaos."
What the hell does that mean?
Within the past few years, the notion of cyberspace (as something to work towards) has been replaced with the concept of ubiquitous and pervasive computing. Technologists are less interested in an abstract representation and access strata of data, than giving the world in which we live a complex [secondary] layer of bytes and electrons. Ubiquitous computing entails a multitude of pervasive electronic devices in the natural human environment.
The early 20th century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein published only one book in his lifetime—Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Wittgenstein commited his thoughts and processes to notes, actually compiling a huge collection of note-books, which were left with relatives, friends, and the like. Wittgenstein ordered the note-books destroyed in 1950, though a number survived. I came across a collection of work taken from surviving note-books, and am thoroughly blown away. Such an abstract and intimate way to get into someone's head. I feel as if these paragraphs are of infinately greater value than, say, an organized journal or diary of thought. Of course, they supplement the organized, official published book, but they also extend the concepts, give a richer experience. I find that I myself work the same way, commiting a huge pool of musings, thoughts, garbage to notes—to go through later and pull out meaningful substance with which to create a conducive composition.
This is an interesting take on composition itself. The book is an archaic, anachronistic, weighty thing. Styles of composition must change to fit the coming paradigms of hypertextual organization, the liquid logic of the new. Still, the language is important, the humanity—in order to comprehend, one must relate. As in Aristotelian thought, we really can't learn anything new, only remember. Take Borges' work on the labyrinth—a vast library containing every possible book containing every possible combination of every possible letter—though with a limit on size. But the limit is self-imposed.
I've always been fascinated by the stuff people keep in their bags. There's something intimate and enchanting about all the things people find necesary to drag around... quaint. I suppose my techno-fetishist tendencies are piqued now more than ever - as gadgets keep shrinking in size/growing in power.
I just don't know about the digital publishing revolution. As much as I am clearly for ubiquitous unfettered access to mass platforms of expression... how much of it is meaningful expression? It seems as though the blogosphere is a large echo-chamber, with some interesting output, but largely masterbatory. Even this topic [the one you are reading about currently] has been beaten to death, no doubt. Of course, the justification lies in the distribution curve of presented content—as there will innevitably be a minimally interesting majority, a diminishing tail, and a few interesting bright points. Funny how the curve is reversed in terms of user attributable content value.
The concept of the 'Alienist' as a replacement to 'artist' is interesting in this context. One who not only responds to time-relevant stimulus (news, current events, etc) but in a interesting way—be it shift of view/approach, re/decontextualization, or innovative and unconventional presentation. Blogs are often merely public bookmarking libraries—with small commentary.
An abstracted correlation to popular artistic views on creativity can be drawn. Periods of clear and direct movement towards an end set the machinery in a path, to be completed by the unconsious—thus creating bursts of inspirational brilliance, to be then re-evaluated by the consciousness etc... Think about it.
