The Future of Portable Computing

I work in the tech industry, and have always had an interest in computing, communication and their development. I try to keep up to date with what is being researched and looked at for the next generation of computing devices that we'll all be carrying around and using in say 10 years time.




This particular video is of a presentation given by Patti Maes, who leads a team at MIT. Her team are working on the future of the interface between computer and user, and here they demonstrate a working prototype for a device that if they are right, has the potential to replace todays smartphone.

If you have any interest in this area, this is well worth 10 minutes of your time, the ideas and concepts presented are very simple and intuitive. Its a bit hard to see the whole projector thing presented catching on, but the next version will probably look at some way of projecting the images generated straight into your own eyes so that the information displayed will be private to you.

I can't wait to get mine ...

Evoting Machines

Take a look at this great ebay auction - some very clever person with the ebay name biffo2009 has decided to auction irelands failed e-voting machines on ebay.

Take a look at E-voting Auction before they take the auction down

if it wasn't such a tragic waste of money it would be funny ...

Queueing for a job

News that over 2000 people queued in Dublin yesterday for jobs in 3 new Londis Supermarkets provides confirmation (if any was needed) that there is a serious problem with unemployment in this country. I've also recently heard the stories about architects and solictors apparently applying for work in McDonalds and Dominos.

You really have to start wondering about the future when you hear stories like these, and it also makes me wonder how many other people in the coming months will be cutting there losses and quitting Ireland for a better life. I am old enough to remember the immigration to the US and UK in the eighties and early nineties, when whole towns and villages in rural ireland lost almost their entire population between the ages of 18 and 30.

Due to US immigration changes since then the US is no longer a real option for most Irish people, but opportunities in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada will surely have to be more appealing than queueing for low paid jobs in the retail and service sector here at home. I really hope we are not witnessing the beginning of a return to the days of mass emigration from our shores.

Pirate Bay Verdict

I've been keeping tabs on the recent Court Case involving the 4 owners of www.thepiratebay.com. Music and Video copyright has become a very difficult area since the advent of widespread high speed broadband connections has made the elecronic distribution of multimedia very easy to achieve.

The verdict in the case comes as no surprise, the 4 individuals are guilty of promoting the copyright infringement and i agree with the verdict. Many people argue that the site only provides links to the material and since it does not host the content there is no copyright infringement, and they cite the fact that a search for the same material on google will provide the same links to the content. This is undoubtedly true, but the big differance is that google was not created with the single sole intention of providing links to illegally shared copyrighted material.

The owners of the site also undoubtedly benefit materially from the revenue generated from online advertising on the site. Their attempts to portray themselves in some sort of romantic jack sparrow pirate role / robin hood role is a clever attempt to legitimise their actions, and there is no doubt that there is widespread sympathy for their "cause".

The Music and Film industry are clearly worried by the problem of illegal distribution of their copyrighted material, and there is no doubt that there is a serious threat to the revenues of these two industries, and to the music industry in particular, but their attempts to stop the illegal online file sharing seem to me to be doomed to failure. As soon as one method of distribution is closed down, another appears to take its place, and this will always be the case.

I would argue that the industry really needs to look hard at embracing the online electronic distribution of its content. Sites like the pirate bay teach us that when it is cheap / free and easy to download entertainment content then people will do it. Rather than trying to stamp out online distribution, the industry needs to embrace it - set up its own pirate bay - charge moderately for each download and as others have done capitalise on the advertising potential of such a site to create additional revenue for their artists.

The Hand of God

This X-Ray image of Pulsar B1509, approximately 17000 light years away from earth was captured by Nasa's Chandra observatory, which is orbiting earth about 360 miles up.

Astronomers have dubbed it "The Hand of God", and if you look at it its pretty obvious why.

Nice picture, and pretty impressive when you think that a little pulsar about 15 miles across can produce a gaseous cloud like that which is about 150 light years across.

If it is god, i'm impressed.

Macbook Review

I've dabbled with Apple Macs in the past, and always liked them, but for various technical reasons, my main machine for work has always needed to be a microsoft powered platform. A month or so ago however i took the plunge and began using a new entry level Apple Macbook with the new aluminium unibody chassis.

I picked the entry level machine on the basis that it was going to be much cheaper to buy it and then upgrade the ram and hard disk myself than to buy a higher spec one from Apple. My machine is therefore the 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM and 160GB hard disk.

Afer a month using it, i've become used to the apple way of doing things and finally figured out the various intricacies of the multi-gesture trackpad. On the whole, i like the mac. Performance of the machine is excellent, the build quality is extremely good and streets ahead of the previous generation of plastic MacBooks. Applications open very quickly, and switching between them is easy and fast.

Surprisingly, i find the 13.3" platform size quite comfortable for prolonged use. All my previous laptops were 15"+ machines, and one of my biggest worries was that i would find the 13.3" display and keyboard hard to use. Not at all, the screen is bright, clear and easy to read, and the keyboard is excellent and responsive.

I have Microsoft Office 2008 running on the machine, and thats probably the one thing i have a problem with. I find it very slow to open, resource hungry, the interface is counter-intuitive and infuriatingly difficult to work with. I use Excel a lot for accounts related spreadsheets, and never had a problem with my spreadsheets when i ran it on windows, but on the mac it just sucks. Data entry into the spreadsheet is taking me twice as long on the mac. I plan on trying Open Office for the mac in the next week and if its any better i'll be dumping Office once and for all.

Battery life is fantastic, with WiFi , surfing the internet, skyping, emailing etc, i regularly achive 4.5 hours plus on a single charge. The built in speakers give a surprisingly good output, perfectly comfortable for watching a movie on the go.

I've ordered a 4GB ram upgrade and a 500gb hard disk which i expect to receive in the next few days. Once those are installed i plan to use Bootcamp to allow dual booting with windows xp, for those rare occasions when i absolutely have to run windows.

I have grown very attached to my new macbook and can't see myself changing back to a windows based laptop any time soon.

If you're thinking of changing, go ahead. I really think you'll never look back.

I can't wait ...

Any of you who know me, will know that i have long been a fan of all things trekkie. From the Original Series, through The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise and all the movies. The latest Star Trek movie, to be released in Cinemas on May 8th promises to be something extra special though. The hand of J.J. Abrams is obvious from all the trailers, and the story line looks really compelling. Simon Pegg in the role of a young "Scottie" is the choice that stands out for me.

This is one that i am really looking forward to. "Its life Jim, but not as we know it."